Will the Dark Store Distribution Strategy Survive Past the Pandemic?

With many retailers closing locations during the pandemic, e-commerce sellers took the opportunity to reposition dark stores in urban locations as mini warehouses. But now that the U.S. retail sector seemed to have gained a position of relative strength and many people have eagerly come back to in-person shopping, will that strategy continue to be a sound one?

According to Benjamin Conwell, senior managing director and practice leader for the e-commerce and electronic fulfillment specialty practice group in the Americas for real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield, demand for “dark stores” in urban neighborhoods is not a temporary fad, but a trend that isn’t going away. That’s because e-commerce and omni-channel operators see them as a cost-effective way to get close enough to their customers to provide 30-miniute to 60-minute delivery, he notes...