Increasing E-Commerce Demand Provides Opportunity for Construction Industry

A recent article highlighted yet another indicator that the US economy is slowly returning to normal: increasing demand for warehouse space. This has been driven by:

• the shopping habits of US consumers, as more people rely on online shopping for groceries and other basics
• consumers’ shifting purchasing needs – goods that were not sold as consumers increasingly opted to spend limited budgets on staples rather than nonessentials had to be stored somewhere
• companies needing more space to sort bulk shipments into smaller, more consumer-friendly packages

This need for more warehouses, local fulfillment centers, and other sites for storing and moving goods represents a tremendous opportunity for the construction industry, as these structures tend to require significant quantities of:

• basic building materials, such as concrete for flooring, roof decks, and internal supports
• prefabricated metal components, such as roof trusses and exterior and interior wall panels
• low-slope roofing materials, such as bituminous, plastic single-ply, or runner membranes, as well as standing seam metal roofing
• large and complex HVAC systems, as well as specialty cooling systems for food storage structures
• overhead doors
• pallet racks and management systems

In addition to the materials themselves, hundreds of skilled tradespeople will be required to erect these buildings, install their components, and keep them operating over time – further boosts to the US economy as it recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.

For more information and discussion of opportunities, see The Freedonia Group’s extensive collection of off-the-shelf research, particularly in the Construction and Building Products area and Global E-Commerce. Freedonia also offers an expanding catalog of COVID-19 Economic Impact reports, which highlight how various industries are responding to the current crisis with a comparison to recent recessions. Freedonia Custom Research is also available for questions requiring tailored market intelligence.