The online shopping supply chain dilemma is at the forefront of many retailers’ minds.

The inefficiency of fulfilling online orders in-store is driving the industry towards reduced profits and an inability to service customers. To combat margin erosion, more and more dark stores are steadily popping up.

But migrating replica stores to large dedicated warehouses away from the high street and customers isn’t the perfect solution to efficiently servicing online orders, according to Tim Waters, a supply chain expert at professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal.

“Companies are modelling their dark stores with the same layout and picking methods as their consumer stores, which makes no logistical sense. Having staff strolling around the grocery or confectionery aisles with a trolley, essentially mimicking a consumer, will not work with the growth projection for the industry,” he says.

Supermarket profits are most vulnerable to this. Industry estimates show that online grocery shopping is set to reach £14.6bn in 2018.

The companies that are winning the biggest share of the online shopping pie are those that are embracing multichannel fulfilment.

This means that as online consumer volumes grow, dark stores need to be specifically tailored to increase productivity.

“Successful fulfilment revolves around the accessibility and movement of goods; employees should remain static while orders and goods should be active, not vice versa,” Waters says.