BEIJING, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- With the increase in online shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic, goods warehouses around the world, especially in Asia, are nearly "full" in operation.
Euromonitor International estimates that global online shopping has grown 43.5% to $2.87 trillion since the end of 2019, with nearly half of it coming from Asia.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported on the 13th that the increase in online shopping, the global supply chain crisis and other factors have made warehouses around the world close to "full" operation, and the vacancy rate is at a record low. This phenomenon is particularly pronounced in Asia. Many commodities are produced in Asia and shipped to other regions.
A man browses online merchandise in his office in Kuwait's Felvaniyeh province on March 15, 2021. (Xinhua News Agency, photo by Assad)
Henry Cheeen, a capital markets expert at CBRE Real Estate Advisory Services, said: "In Asia, the vacancy rate (of warehouses) is currently around 3%, which is at an all-time low. ”
"More demand for e-commerce and continued disruptions in supply chains mean that companies want to hold as much safety stock as possible," he said. ”
To meet the growing demand for online shopping, RedMart, one of Singapore's largest e-commerce companies, is looking for larger warehouses while relying more on automation technology.
RedMart's warehouse has more than 100,000 items at any time. All items must be shipped out of stock within 3 days and replaced by new incoming items.
On 14 April 2021, a member of the public runs on the Golden Jubilee Bridge in Singapore. (Xinhua News Agency, photo by Deng Zhiwei)
Richard Laddy, chief retail officer at RedMart's parent company, said they realised 4 to 5 years ago that online shopping and sales would grow, "and in the last 12 months, the online market in Singapore has increased by about 70% year-on-year".
Radi predicts that RedMart's warehousing facilities will need to continue to expand in the coming years.
RedMart says it uses big data to grasp exactly how much of a certain commodity is needed at a time, and uses automation to use every inch of the warehouse.
According to a new survey by CBRE Property Advisory Services, more than three-quarters of companies using warehousing facilities in the Asia-Pacific region said they will continue to expand their warehousing facilities over the next three years. The BBC believes that more demand means that warehouses will be more automated and the height of warehouses will be higher. (Bu Xiaoming)