Robotics and automation applied sciences are being adopted at report charges, with no indicators of slowdown. The first demand driver is e-commerce.
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With the continuing digitalization of contemporary life, the retail panorama has undergone fairly a metamorphosis over the previous couple of years, making e-commerce a vital a part of the worldwide retail trade. Consequently, each e-commerce and the cell robotic market are seeing speedy development. Regardless of the worldwide financial uncertainty in the meanwhile, e-commerce statistics undertaking that the trade will continue to grow and account for 22% of all retail gross sales worldwide in 2023 — in comparison with the 14.1% again in 2019.
Not solely can we see the impression of digitalization mirrored within the retail trade, however warehouse automation statistics additionally present that increasingly more warehouses and distribution facilities are shifting in direction of automation. In fact, the e-commerce trade development is likely one of the driving forces behind this development, together with rising labor prices, office security, and rising demand for speedy order achievement.
To present you a greater grasp of how digitalization is at present impacting the retail trade, 30 compelling e-commerce statistics have been collected. The — from warehouse automation to new methods of order achievement in logistics and provide chain administration.
Determine 1: Retail E-commerce Gross sales 2019-2022 – Trillions of Euros (Supply: emarketer.com)
Normal E-Commerce Statistics
E-commerce is at present one of the crucial worthwhile industries. Prices are comparatively low as e-commerce companies require fewer employees members and they don’t essentially require a bodily location — creating infinite alternatives for a lot of entrepreneurs.
- Double Digit Development – On account of the shift in direction of on-line retail throughout 2020 and 2021, retail e-commerce gross sales are anticipated to proceed to extend by double digits over the subsequent couple of years. Estimated by eMarketer, worldwide retail e-commerce will develop from €2.96 trillion in 2019 to €6.54 trillion by 2025 — rising its market share from 13.9% to 22.3% throughout the forecast interval.
- Shopper Demand Up – Shopper demand is likely one of the major causes e-commerce is booming. With 59% of the world accessing the web, on-line buying is usually the extra handy possibility. Furthermore, do you know that it’s anticipated that by 2040 greater than 95% of all purchases are performed through e-commerce?
- Extra Patrons – The variety of international digital patrons is predicted to extend increasingly more. Based on Statista, over 2.14 billion folks worldwide have been anticipated to purchase items and companies on-line in 2021 — up from 1.66 billion in 2016.
- China Leads – The world’s main e-commerce market is China, whereas Latin America confirmed the quickest development in 2020. Led by e-commerce subsidiaries of the Alibaba group and with an annual development charge of 35%, China can also be one of many markets with the quickest e-commerce trade development. Nevertheless, final yr, Latin America stood out with the quickest development — from 23.2% in 2019 to 36.7% in 2020.

Determine 2: Main E-Commerce within the World (Supply: enterprise.com)
- B2B Leads – B2B e-commerce dominates B2C on-line gross sales. Regardless of being a tad slower to implement e-commerce, B2B manufacturers are more and more in search of digital options to spice up gross sales — and with good cause: in 2020 the worldwide B2B e-commerce market valued at €5.87 trillion and is predicted to develop at a Compound Annual Development Price (CAGR) of 18.7% between 2021 and 2028.
- Cellular Units – Cellular commerce makes up for many e-commerce gross sales. It was projected that the entire international retail e-commerce gross sales would attain €4.1 trillion by 2021 — of which cell commerce was anticipated to take a market share of 72.9%. As well as, internet buyers make purchases through cell extra usually than on PCs.
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Warehouse Automation Statistics
Right now, enterprise practices are closely influenced by the revolution of automation options — aiming to fulfill client demand whereas protecting the price of manufacturing and logistics down. Consequently, versatile automated methods are being adopted to work in a number of environments.
- Extra Automation – The acceleration in e-commerce is driving increased ranges of warehouse automation and data methods help. To meet orders effectively and meet prospects’ speedy order supply expectations in addition to to adapt to speedy operational modifications — similar to throughout the pandemic — automation has been changing into an actual game-changer.
- Warehouse Automation – The worldwide warehouse automation market will witness substantial development within the upcoming years. Based on Analysis and Markets, the worldwide warehouse automation market is predicted to extend at a CAGR of 13.6% throughout 2021 and 2026 — reaching an estimated worth of roughly €27.4B by 2026. This development is very influenced by the rise in e-commerce, the globalization of provide chain networks, the emergence of autonomous cell robots (AMRs), and the significance of order achievement in logistics.
Determine 3: The Warehouse Automation Market Forecast 2019-2026 (Analysis and Markets)
- Elevated Automaton Funding – Because of a constructive financial outlook, increasingly more warehouses and distribution facilities are investing in robotics and automation. Logistics Administration’s report of 2018 discovered that 42% of respondents have been continuing with investments due to the constructive state of the economic system — a 7% improve in comparison with 2017.
- AMRs Ship Worth – Corporations deploying AMRs and different robotic options of their warehouses see vital enhancements. Greater than 70% of order achievement operations and warehouses that deploy AMRs — particularly retail and wholesale industries — have achieved double-digit enhancements, stating that the primary cause for utilizing robotics is to enhance the corporate’s general effectivity and productiveness.
- Addressing Labor Shortages – Cellular robots are an addition to the workforce, not a alternative. Knowledge recommend that introducing AMRs in fast-growing warehouses and achievement facilities is generally a results of a scarcity of employees, quite than a strategy to substitute employees. For instance, over the last 5 years, Amazon has adopted 200,000 cell robots in its warehouses, whereas concurrently rising its workforce with the identical numbers.

Determine 4: 2022 Robotics Shipments (Supply: ABI Analysis)
- Extra Cellular Robots – Shipments of cell robots and cobots are seeing large development. In a latest white paper, ABI Analysis highlights a predicted 65% improve in cell robotic shipments throughout 2022 — from 274K in 2021 to 452K shipments in 2022. As well as, ABI additionally predicts a 51% Yr-Over-Yr improve of cobots — reaching a complete variety of 45K collaborative robotic shipments.
- Hundreds of thousands of Robots – Based on ABI Analysis, over 4 million business robots shall be put in in additional than 50,000 warehouses worldwide by the yr 2025. This is able to be fairly a rise from the prevailing 4,000 again in 2018 — including to the necessity for a common digital answer that’s able to managing various robotic fleets.
- Business Service Robots – 9 out of 10 firms have indicated that they’re planning to include business service robots inside their group ultimately. It’s anticipated that in america alone, there shall be roughly 23,000 robotic warehouses by 2025, in comparison with 2,500 again in 2018.
Order Success
Hundreds of thousands of packages are shipped worldwide every day, which means that order achievement has change into a elementary facet of e-commerce. From fast-paced delivery to managing distribution facilities, protecting prospects glad via order achievement comes with many challenges.
- Success Effectivity is Crucial – Order achievement is likely one of the most vital facets of retaining completely happy prospects. Knowledge exhibits that 63% of shoppers say that dwelling supply is the highest buy driver to purchase on-line. Having stated that, 45% of internet buyers are unlikely to buy from a retailer once more after having obtained an merchandise late.
- Velocity and Ease Key – Delivery pace and simple supply processes are key relating to constructive buyer experiences within the e-commerce trade. The highest contributors to making sure constructive buyer expertise in e-commerce are quick delivery pace (62%), a simple supply course of (54%), and ample product data (53%). And, don’t overlook that 80% of individuals discontinue doing enterprise with firms because of poor buyer expertise!
Determine 5: Prime Contributors to Optimistic Buyer Expertise (Supply: Emarketer)
- The Price of Human Error – Human error is the primary explanation for achievement points. Based on a survey from Sew Labs, 62% of respondents talked about human error from handbook course of administration because the primary root explanation for stock or achievement points — one thing which might simply be prevented by implementing a fleet administration system that gives visitors management and automotive process allocation.
- Success Challenges – Processing time for outbound orders and system integration are two of the primary difficulties retailers face with order achievement. As well as, 24.7% of retailers say that the most important problem their provide chain faces are supply prices, whereas 12% of them are unprofitable merely because of distribution prices.
- Restricted Monitoring – In 2018, solely 35% of warehouses tracked their order cycle instances utilizing an automatic system. The identical examine confirmed that just about 50% of warehouses nonetheless tracked their order cycle instances manually, whereas 19% didn’t monitor them in any respect.

Determine 6: A Hybrid Strategy to On-line Order Success
(Supply: DHL Analysis Report | The Ecommerce Provide Chain: Overcoming Rising Pains)
- Shift To Outsourcing Success – An increasing number of companies are shifting in direction of outsourcing achievement. Based on a DHL report from 2019, 40% of firms are insourcing achievement, of which 6% are planning to modify to an outsourcing answer sooner or later. One other 18% will almost definitely outsource their achievement utterly.
- Hybrid Success Options – Combining insourced with outsourced assets appears to be the most well-liked method. Practically 50% of B2C respondents say that they are going to go for a hybrid answer to order achievement — present methods embody having a devoted e-commerce facility for on-line order achievement in addition to having a multichannel facility that mixes the stock administration of each on-line and in-store purchases.
Materials Dealing with Statistics
Simply as we now have seen with the warehouse trade, the fabric dealing with trade is very pushed by the rising e-commerce sector. Maintaining with the tendencies within the on-line buying trade, the fabric dealing with trade focuses its consideration on growing and optimizing options for the warehouse- and provide chain ecosystem.
- Europe & Asia Robust Adopters – The fabric dealing with trade is principally represented by Europe and Asia. Based on Grand View Analysis, Europe accounted for a income share of 34.1% within the international materials dealing with tools market in 2020, thereby dominating the market. As well as, Asia Pacific is estimated to witness a CAGR of 9.7% of their materials dealing with tools market throughout the 2021-2028 forecast interval.
- Strong Development – The worldwide market dimension of the fabric dealing with tools trade is predicted to rise steadily within the upcoming years. Based on Grand View Analysis, the market was valued at €23.25B in 2020 and is now projected to achieve 38.4B by 2028 — exhibiting a 7.4% CAGR throughout the forecast interval.

Determine 7: The Automated Materials Dealing with Gear Market
(Supply: Researchandmarkets.com)
- Extra Materials Dealing with Automation – Automation is gaining extra reputation within the materials dealing with tools trade. The market dimension of the automated materials dealing with tools trade is valued at €36.14 billion in 2021 and is predicted to extend to €63.66 billion in 2026, with a CAGR of 12% throughout the forecast interval — that’s a steeper improve than seen within the non-automated materials dealing with tools market.
- Cellular Robots Maintain Coming – The adoption of cell robots is seeing speedy development throughout industries, bringing enormous transformative change. The cell robotics market in materials dealing with and logistics is estimated to be valued at €62 billion by 2027 — this quantity is even anticipated to greater than doubled by the yr 2038.
- Reliability & Flexibility a Should – There’s a rising demand for dependable and versatile automated methods to enhance operations and productiveness in varied retail functions. Applied sciences like AGVs and Warehouse Administration Techniques (WMS) are gaining extra reputation as they provide a wide range of advantages to enhance operational effectivity and productiveness — similar to low errors and prices in addition to extra correct choosing and packing. This, in flip, will improve the necessity for a common answer to effectively managing various robotic fleets.
- Once more, E-Commerce Key Demand Driver – E-commerce holds the most important market share within the materials dealing with tools trade. Again in 2018, the market share of the e-commerce phase exceeded 15% when it comes to income and is predicted to increase at a CAGR of 8% till 2025. Furthermore, the demand for materials dealing with tools within the e-commerce sector is projected to surpass €8.85B by 2028, says Grand Evaluation Analysis.
Editors Word: Robotics Enterprise Evaluation want to thank Meili Robots for permission to reprint the unique article (discovered HERE).
In regards to the Writer
Michelle Schlechtriem is the Content material Supervisor at Meili Robots. She is a hard-working, artistic author devoted to bringing constructive change to the world along with her phrases. She graduated from Roskilde College (Denmark) with a MA in Communication & Enterprise Research and is often writing about Advertising and marketing, Expertise, and Sustainability. A few of her earlier work might be discovered on GreenMatch. Join with Michelle on Linkedin.
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