Carrefour has made a firm commitment to boosting its online grocery sales channel in Spain and has opened an exclusive platform in Getafe (Madrid) to service online orders. The centre, which has 10,000 square metres of space, is capable of handling up to 4,000 deliveries a day. The facility will reinforce the preparation of orders, which were until now carried out by ten hypermarkets and 60 stores.

Operated by Salvesen Logística, it boasts the very latest in eCommerce operating systems. Its functions cover all the necessary operations, from planning orders to managing offers. It also applies algorithms to optimise vehicle spaces with “smart” packaging and uses dynamic management on last-mile deliveries, which improves the efficiency of the delivery trucks.

The building housing Carrefour’s logistics platform has been recognised with LEED v4 certification within the classification of sustainable buildings, in the core and shell building design and construction category.

Distribution area
The Getafe platform will be responsible for attending to online orders from the Madrid Autonomous Community and surrounding areas. The warehouse contains almost 17,000 food items, including fresh meat, fish and bakery products, which are individually prepared in the personalised bakery area as the orders are received. Delivery times start at seven in the morning and run until ten at night.

Chairman and CEO of the Carrefour Group, Alexandre Bompard, who was accompanied by the Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto at the launch explained, "The opening of the Getafe platform illustrates the great progress of our digital roadmap in Spain. E-commerce is attracting more and more customers and is now one of the most important growth factors, together with the digitalization of our financial or media retail services. In Spain, as in the rest of the Group, we will continue to accelerate our investments to innovate for our customers, create new jobs and transform Carrefour into a Digital Retail Company.”

Apart from this centre, Carrefour prepares online orders at ten dedicated spaces in its hypermarkets, where it manages between 4,000 and 8,000 items, in addition to the ones in the physical stores. It also meets approximately 1,000 online food orders per day at its other 60 stores.

^{Photo: Carrefour}