Woolworths will be ramping up online grocery shopping by opening up to five new ‘dark’ stores in order to compete with Amazon. The supermarket giant’s chairman Gordon Cairns told investors at their AGM yesterday that it was critical the retailer would improve online shopping to compete with Amazon. Cairns said that they should have up to five dedicated dark stores by the end of 2018 in order to “deliver to customers and improve our performance.” He also warned suppliers off selling to Amazon, saying it would be “cutting their own throat,” as other retailers could drop their products. Dark stores are closed to the public and are laid out like a supermarket to allow staff members to pack orders and ship directly from the store. Woolworths already has a dark store in Mascot, Sydney, which has been trialling operations since 2014. Competitor Coles has two dark stores, one in Richmond Victoria and one in Alexandria. A spokesperson from Coles said they have seen online record double-digit sales growth in the past financial year.
Source: www.insidefmcg.com
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