Trends in Industrial Design Accelerated by E-Commerce

Industrial real estate has experienced healthy growth over the past five years, but no one could have forecast that a global pandemic would be a boon for the sector.

The global shutdown resulting from the coronavirus outbreak has forced many consumers to change their shopping habits, drastically accelerating the penetration and adoption of e-commerce worldwide. In the U.S., online shopping increased by 30 percent in the first six months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. This e-commerce surge has put remarkable pressure on retailers to quickly move their inventory online and bolster their distribution networks, resulting in nearly unprecedented demand for warehousing and logistics space across most primary and secondary logistics markets.

While this e-commerce surge isn’t going to revolutionize industrial design, it will accelerate trends in the sector. Three trends specifically will keep shaping the design of industrial assets in upcoming years.

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