PedidosYa and Rappi deepen their foray into the mass consumption business and double down on their bet against supermarkets. The two delivery platforms expand their chains of obscure shops, or “invisible shops”designed to exclusively serve online orders through its armies of distributors.
The activity is known as Fast tradeAND a variant of the more traditional e-commerce. This mode, fashionable in the more developed markets, Focus on small purchases and home delivery in the shortest possible time. It is based on low-cost shops and structured like a supermarket or self-service, but without customer service.
PedidosYa opened its first dark store exactly 3 years ago (this week they celebrate) below the flag of OrdersYa Markets. The startup born in Uruguay and which today belongs to the German giant Delivery Hero, added 11 stores last year and They plan to open 9 more throughout 2023, all in the GBA. “In the suburbs they operate very well and we also have a greater penetration than in the capital“, says Juan Aranguren, the executive in charge of that business unit.
Dark Stores offer a limited universe of food, drinks, toiletries and cleaning items (between 1,000 and 3,000), which are selected based on demand. They are premises between 200 and 400 square meters, with cash registers, gondolas and refrigerators. Only order clerks work there, who prepare parcels with the help of the application. PedidosYa today has a total of 70 and is “the online supermarket that sells the most”pride in the company.
For his part, in August 2021 Rappi launched his first “Turbo” for ultra-fast deliveries (“in less than 10 minutes”, according to the advertising slogan) and today it has 20. The last opening was in the center of Mar del Plata. Company sources said they plan to do so resume the expansion plan from the second half of 2023with a focus also on the GBA.
This Colombian-born unicorn, a technological icon of that country, is present in 9 markets in the region, in which it also supplements its income with its relatively new “Turbo”.
Traditional chains have reacted to this, with varying results. Carrefour and Changomas have launched their pilot tests under the Bringo and 321+ brands, respectively. But both were discontinued “because they didn’t deliver the expected results,” business sources agree.
The only one that thrives on this scheme is Spid, the model dark store of the Chilean group Cencosud (Jumbo, Disco and Vea). The company has already opened 34 “invisible stores” in some of its hypermarkets, and 3 other physical stores, which operate independently, to cater to a specific online demand.
Cencosud has enhanced the program with the launch of an application to allow customers to make quick purchases. “Basically today Spid is focusing on Capital and GBA for now, but The idea is to hit 60 locations this yeara company source said.
The main challenge, they acknowledge, is the logistics infrastructure, an advantage that the two delivery platforms have. “It is essential to resolve the issue. It’s not the same to deliver in downtown CABA as it is in an inner city“, they added.
The value of dark stores -and their development- lies in the low management costs compared to a traditional branch. In mass consumption, they aim to solve urgent purchases, for which the average pack fluctuates between 4 and 5 units.
At the market they explain that the format was all the rage during the pandemic but has lost momentum with the reopening of businesses. Hence, PedidosYa and Rappi were forced to rethink their expansion strategies to compete with supermarkets.
Source: Clarin
