An additional 8.6 million square meters (92.57 million square feet) of warehouse space will be required by parcel companies in Europe between 2021 and 2025 to keep up with growing ecommerce demand.
Data analyzed by Savills shows that, based on a report from Effigy Consulting, a total of 12.3 billion parcels were delivered in Europe during 2019. Applying data from OFCOM’s parcel delivery, which shows an annualized growth of 9.1 percent in the number of U.K. parcels, the next five years in Europe will require a significant development pipeline.
Assuming 20 percent of goods bought online are returned over this period, an estimated 1.7 million square meters (18.3 million square feet) of this space will be required to accommodate and process returns from parcel delivery companies. Rather than a like-for-like relationship between parcel returns and logistics demand, this is more likely to be in the form of a ripple effect for new demand from associated trading partners.
