Publications
Publications
- August 2020 (Revised March 2021)
- HBS Case Collection
Migros Turkey: Scaling Online Operations (A)
By: Antonio Moreno and Gamze Yucaoglu
Abstract
The case opens in November 2019 as Ozgur Tort and Mustafa Bartin, CEO and chief large-format and online retail officer of Migros Ticaret A.S. (Migros), Turkey’s oldest and one of its largest supermarket chains, are contemplating what the best fulfillment format and delivery model for the company’s growing online arm, Sanal Market, and its under-30-minutes grocery service arm, Hemen, are. Migros’s online operations had grown over 50% year-on-year in the previous three years, and the target for 2020 was to grow 100%. With all of these considerations in mind, Bartin and Tort needed to decide which levers to pull for the last mile and fulfillment to best serve the future of Migros.
The case chronicles the founding and growth of Migros as well as Sanal Market and lays the ground for food and grocery retail in Turkey complete with the competitive outlook. The case then provides a detailed overview of how Migros built online channels, Sanal Market and its recently introduced Hemen, and how Tort and Bartin have thought about fulfillment and delivery as well as omnichannel mentality. The case goes into detail about the three different fulfillment models, store pick micro-fulfillment center, and dark store, that Migros is piloting in 2019 as well as providing an understanding of what the company is thinking about logistics and last mile delivery as its online sales grow.
While globally, online shopping and consumer preferences were changing fast, particularly in terms of how and with what frequency customers shopped online and how fast they wanted their groceries delivered, Migros was trying to find the optimum model for fulfillment and last mile delivery. What was the best way to optimize last mile with regards to pooling store catchment areas and pooling stores, and which of the fulfillment models would yield the best results in terms of picking speed and accuracy and customer expectations? Additionally, the company needed to figure out how to position Hemen; facing fierce competition from fast-delivery grocery startups, for whom burning cash to achieve growth was not a concern, should Hemen remain as a stand-alone offering or should it be integrated within the Sanal Market app?
The case chronicles the founding and growth of Migros as well as Sanal Market and lays the ground for food and grocery retail in Turkey complete with the competitive outlook. The case then provides a detailed overview of how Migros built online channels, Sanal Market and its recently introduced Hemen, and how Tort and Bartin have thought about fulfillment and delivery as well as omnichannel mentality. The case goes into detail about the three different fulfillment models, store pick micro-fulfillment center, and dark store, that Migros is piloting in 2019 as well as providing an understanding of what the company is thinking about logistics and last mile delivery as its online sales grow.
While globally, online shopping and consumer preferences were changing fast, particularly in terms of how and with what frequency customers shopped online and how fast they wanted their groceries delivered, Migros was trying to find the optimum model for fulfillment and last mile delivery. What was the best way to optimize last mile with regards to pooling store catchment areas and pooling stores, and which of the fulfillment models would yield the best results in terms of picking speed and accuracy and customer expectations? Additionally, the company needed to figure out how to position Hemen; facing fierce competition from fast-delivery grocery startups, for whom burning cash to achieve growth was not a concern, should Hemen remain as a stand-alone offering or should it be integrated within the Sanal Market app?
Keywords
Retail; Grocery; Business Model; Emerging Markets; For-Profit Firms; Strategy; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Value Creation; Globalization; Competition; Expansion; Logistics; Profit; Resource Allocation; Corporate Strategy; Turkey
Citation
Moreno, Antonio, and Gamze Yucaoglu. "Migros Turkey: Scaling Online Operations (A)." Harvard Business School Case 621-026, August 2020. (Revised March 2021.)