Metro Group’s Metro Cash & Carry wholesale store chain is going more “omnichannel” in China, where business shoppers on its complementary e-commerce site, MetroMall.com, will soon be able to order products online and arrange to pick them up in a store, a spokesman says.

MetroMall.com, which was launched two years ago, is ready for several upgrades after the company learned more about how wholesale customers, mostly small, independent businesses,  like to shop, he adds. “After two years of testing MetroMall, we are upgrading it to provide better services,” he says. In addition to in-store pickup of online orders across the 77-store Metro Cash & Carry chain, the upgraded e-commerce site will become accessible via mobile devices and social media, and in both English and Chinese languages, the spokesman says. He declines to provide more specifics on the timing of the upgrade or the technology behind it.

“Aiming to be ‘the champion for independent business’ and a focused multichannel specialist, we’re dedicated to support our local customers to be even more successful by providing them with high-quality products, unique solutions at competitive wholesale prices,” says Jeroen de Groot, president of Metro China.

For now, MetroMall.com is serving customers only in Shanghai, but after the upgrade it will serve all registered customers of Metro China, the company says. Metro China recently opened a third Metro Cash & Carry wholesale store in Ningbo, a deep water port south of Shanghai and along the cost of the East China Sea in the Zhejiang province, bringing the chain up to a total of 77 stores across 53 cities. The wholesaler counts in China more than 5 million customers and more than 10,000 employees.

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