E-commerce generates warehouse space

Every extra £1bn spent online leads to another 905,000 sq ft of new logistics floorspace.

So says new research from warehouse developer Prologis, who are predicting Europe-wide demand for another 161 milliom sq ft of warehousing to meet e-commerce needs.

So far the last three years has seen e-commerce require more than 54 million sq ft of new logistics floorspace in Europe.

Prologis says that the UK, Germany, France, Poland, Czech Republic and Netherlands are the main logistics hot spots for e-commerce.

The data shows that around 40% of deals were for units larger than 370,000 sq ft. Just 25% of deals were for mega-sheds of 800,000 sq ft or more.

Prologis warns its predictions could change if retailers adopt new omni-channel sales strategies, or if the supply of warehousing remains low. Today around 15% of all warehouse take-up is accounted for by online sales, it says.