Mercadona, a physical supermarket and online sales company, made the decision in 2018 to improve the online service that it had been offering to “The Boss” (this is how it calls the customer) for many years through its traditional website and a centralized order preparation and distribution system in its stores, and began to progressively develop the Mercadona Online project.
This project consists of a new order preparation and distribution system centralized in exclusive stores for online sales, internally called Colmenas, with a new website and mobile applications, with the aim of improving the experience of “El Jefe” online and making the easiest and most intuitive purchase process. In addition, this new logistics system has meant increasing productivity and efficiency by multiplying it up to 8 times compared to the traditional in-store order preparation system.
Currently, the company has implemented this new online shopping system in the areas of , and , and has a workforce of more than 600 people dedicated exclusively to the Mercadona Online project.
In April of this year, Mercadona launched its new Colmena de Getafe. Already in June 2019 (Polígono Zona Franca) after an investment of 8 million euros. These hives join the one located in the Polígono Vara de Quart (Valencia), which opened in 2018 after an investment of 12 million euros.
Delivery vans in the Mercadona ‘Hive’ in Getafe (Madrid).
At the beginning of the state of alarm, the company decided to stop the online purchase service from the traditional system, to guarantee the service in store, as it was. However, he maintained the service of the Hives, even inaugurating the new Hive in Getafe (Madrid).
The first Mercadona Hive in Madrid began serving the Retiro and Salamanca neighborhoods and the Méndez Álvaro area, specifically seven postal codes (28001, 28006, 28007, 28009, 28010, 28014, 28045).
By moving the preparation and shipping of orders to the Beehive, productivity and efficiency are increased, giving a better service.
This new distribution center has an area of 15,000 square meters, of which 3,800 square meters are for fresh products, including a cold storage area for refrigerated and frozen products. Fresh products are received and prepared the same day they are delivered to the customer, thus guaranteeing the highest quality and freshness.
Last year, the Barcelona center began its service in the districts of Sarrià-Sant Gervasi and Les Corts, specifically in the postal codes 08017, 08021, 08022 and 08034, gradually reaching the rest of the neighborhoods of Barcelona city . This online logistics center of 10,500 square meters has 2,500 square meters for fresh products, including a cold storage area for refrigerated products that require temperatures below -20ºC.
Additionally, elements that considerably reduce energy consumption such as solar panels and special insulation for the cold storage area were included in the new logistics center. On the other hand, the level of charging platforms has been lowered so that delivery vehicles used in the city center, which are smaller than regular delivery vehicles, can be easily loaded to facilitate last-mile delivery – the most demanding part of the distribution, the last journey of the order until its final delivery.
A Mercadona employee in the Getafe (Madrid) online store.
With 13,000 square meters, incorporating efficiency into the order preparation and shipping process by centralizing all of them at the same point and facilitating organization according to the type of product: dry, fresh, refrigerated and frozen.
The frozen area was organized so that its preparation is perimetral, preventing the worker from having to place the order from inside the frozen chamber, eliminating overexertion. Likewise, the technology available to this new service means a reinforcement of productivity and efficiency.
Sustainability and efficiency
In this service, Mercadona has a gas fleet that can transport up to 15 orders without recharging. These have been exclusively designed with three temperature zones adapted to each type of product: room temperature, refrigerated and frozen.
In addition, it incorporates a mechanized unloading system that minimizes load handling, with the consequent reduction of over-efforts for workers and less unloading time. Likewise, the entire fleet is part of the sustainable transport project that the company is developing, since all the vehicles are gas-powered, following .
Mercadona has a gas fleet that can transport up to 15 orders without recharging
The objective of the new online shopping is not based solely on improving the shopping experience through the new website and mobile application, but also involves important structural changes that allow optimization of the preparation and delivery processes.
By transferring the preparation and shipping of orders to the Hive, instead of managing them one by one from the stores, productivity and efficiency are increased, guaranteeing a better service. In addition to the , all the software used in the different processes is developed internally by Mercadona, which has a team of developers, product managers and designers.
The products can be located through the categories or the search engine of the new platform, which has photographs of each product and all its relevant information.
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