Fashion
Chinese online grocer Sandan Fresh has opened its first offline store in Shanghai.
The Chinese company plans to open 30 more stores in the city over the next year as reported.
The stores will be small in size, allowing a large number convenience-style stores to be established.
The first store covers 100sqm, and currently has around 800 – 1000 items including fruit, vegetables, meat, eggs and soy products.
Through a combination of ‘offline’ stores and ‘smart shelf’ machines, the company can provide customers with more of an integrated shopping solution, including delivery to stores, and home delivery for purchases made through the social media platform WeChat, a Sandan Fresh spokesperson said.
In addition to its retail stores, Sandan will also install numerous self-service smart-shelf machines around the city for customers to place orders online and pick up their goods there.
Each of the 30 planned stores are set to be accompanied by 10 smart-shelf machines.
The company expects about half of its sales to come from in-store purchases and the other half from WeChat purchases for home deliveries.
