Customers who shop for goods online will have an easier time navigating the new website and app, which provides the option to locate items either by browsing product categories or by using a search function.
Seville is the location of Mercadona’s first platform in Andalusia that is solely devoted to conducting business online. This platform, which Mercadona refers to internally as a Hive.
In Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz), Mercadona has just introduced its brand-new online shopping platform that went live today. The company’s internal communications will refer to the company’s specialised online service platforms as the “Hive,” and this is the location where orders will be processed and delivered to customers.
Since December, service has been provided from this Hive, which is located in the Higuerón Sur neighbourhood of Seville, to the cities of Seville and Huelva. The service has now expanded to the municipality of Jerez de la Frontera, including the postcodes 11401, 11402, 11403, 11404, 11405, 11406, 11407, and 11408, as well as 11591 and 11593, and it will continue to be expanded gradually.
The end result of this is that local online customers will have an easier time shopping via the newly designed website and app, which both allow you to locate products either by browsing through categories or by using a search function. Customers will have access to photographs of each item, along with detailed information about it.
This new model keeps the delivery fee at the same level as the previous service (€7.21/order), but it provides an expanded delivery window that runs from 7 am to 10 pm, Monday through Saturday, with delivery beginning the day after the order is placed and occurring in two-hour increments. In addition, clients have the ability to make changes to their orders up until the evening of the day before delivery.
€25 million investment
This new distribution centre required a total investment of €25 million, which included the purchase of the site through a public tender. It is situated on a plot of land measuring 30,220 square metres and has a surface area of 9,938 square metres, of which 1,850 square metres are designated for fresh products and include a cold storage area for refrigerated and frozen goods. Fresh goods are received and prepared on the same day that they are delivered to customers, ensuring that both the quality and freshness of the goods are at their highest possible levels.
Both efficiency and longevity are important.
Mercadona’s Hive in Seville is equipped with thirty vehicles that have earned the ECO environmental label; these vehicles are all micro hybrids and can carry up to fifteen orders each. These vehicles have been meticulously outfitted with a room temperature compartment, a refrigerator compartment, and a freezer compartment in order to accommodate a wide range of products requiring specific temperature conditions. They also come equipped with a mechanised unloading system that reduces the amount of manual labour required for the unloading process, as well as the amount of strain placed on employees.
In addition to that, there are currently 648 solar panels that have been mounted on the surface of the roof. As a direct consequence of this, the Hive is capable of meeting its day-to-day requirements for energy consumption on its own. The facilities have been upgraded, including the optimization of the corridors so that employees can complete their routes with fewer steps overall. In addition, both the entrance and the exit for vehicles have been optimised for productivity, and there are two trailer docks to make the process of providing supplies easier.
