Warehouse automation, delivery robot markets poised for growth

The drive toward logistics automation continues, with two recent studies predicting strong growth in demand for warehouse automation equipment and delivery robots over the next five to 10 years.

A report from global technology market researcher Interact Analysis predicts the warehouse automation market will grow from a value of $29.6 billion in 2020 to $69 billion in 2025, driven by demand from the grocery and general merchandise industries. Fixed automation solutions, including automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), conveyors, and conveyor-based sorters, will remain the most common form of automation, “but there is a rapidly growing trend for warehouses to adopt more flexible mobile automation solutions,” as well, according to the data, which is included in the latest edition of the researcher’s global warehouse automation report, released today.

“The general merchandise segment is the single largest segment in warehouse automation, and it is predicted to grow at a faster rate than the overall market, with revenues hitting [$20 billion] by 2025,” Rueben Scriven, senior analyst at Interact Analysis, said in a statement Thursday. “General merchandise is driven by companies such as JD.com, Amazon, and Target, all of which have heavily benefited from the Covid-inspired e-commerce boost. By 2025, general merchandise will account for 28% of the market. However, the single fastest growing vertical market is grocery, which is projected to grow from 12% of the market in 2020 to 16% in 2025.”

Pandemic-related delays and disruptions will cause the market to stabilize over the next year as companies catch up on a backlog of orders for systems, the report also found. By 2022, “the market will have returned to normal and will be facing a permanently accelerated rate of post-pandemic growth,” according to the researchers.

The report also found that systems integrators Dematic and Honeywell Intelligrated retain the greatest market share for warehouse automation projects, and that Asia-Pacific has the largest market share regionally, with a market size of $11 billion.

A separate report from researcher Allied Market Research predicts that the delivery robot market will grow by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 25% between 2021 and 2030 to reach an expected $30.5 billion. Accelerated e-commerce growth and demand for contactless delivery since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic are driving demand globally, especially in food and hospitality industries, the company said.