Online Shopping Is Forcing A Warehouse Evolution

The world’s buying habits are changing, most obviously through the emergence of online shopping. While both B2B and B2C buyers have experienced this dramatic shift in the form of international shopping and nearly instant purchasing, the back-end of this revolution has seen some drastic changes, too.

Most notably, the element of the warehouse has been forced to undergo an evolution of sorts to assimilate with the eCommerce trend. While the warehouse is often considered a boring building stacked with products waiting to be shipped out, new research from Green Street Advisors reveals the dramatic changes going on in the industry, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The warehouse is quickly increasing its functionality and adopting new technologies, research shows. New warehouses, for example, are being built with ceilings higher than their older counterparts to accommodate the massive influx of product necessary to meet global shoppers’ demands. The structures are also being build next to larger lots for delivery fleets, too.

“In some markets where a building was build 25 years ago, that is considered ancient,” said Green Street industrial real estate expert Eric Frankel, according to WSJ. “The trend is clearly towards more parking for trucks and cars and higher ceilings.”

Various other minute details of the warehouse structure can make a major difference in a supplier’s ability to fulfill an online order. According to the study, loading bay depths and widths, along with parking space size, have a significant impact on the value of a warehouse.

This shift in warehouse design has also made an impact on the real estate market overall. According to Green Street, warehouse rents are likely not rising as expected because suppliers want to store their products in newer structures with updated features. Online commerce, researchers believe, make the “hidden, built-in obsolescence” of older warehouses less attractive to businesses.