Like all businesses, warehouses across North America have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. For some industries, there have been severe, adverse effects that will leave scars among the companies who survive. For others, business has remained steady, but they’ve had to adapt to new realities that could become their new ‘normal.’
The latter could be the case for the warehousing industry. As such, what are examples of trends from the pandemic that could become part of the ‘new normal’ for warehouses?
Warehousing Trends That Could Become the New Normal
• An increase in automation. Finding workers during the pandemic has been difficult, as has been the need to keep the ones you have distanced under COVID protocols. As such, it’s only natural that more and more automation will make its way into warehouses. That’s probably true in all industries, but especially so in the warehousing one.
• The future of malls could be… warehouses. Malls currently serve as an end point for be products to be sold to customers. Soon they could serve as a different end point—the place where products are shipped from. As more and more online juggernauts buy up real estate, including mall space, you could see many malls turn into warehouse space.
• A commitment to using better materials. As the world continues to fight climate change and works to make business operations more efficient, you’ll likely see environmentally friendly options such as reusable pallets and recycled packaging become more and more ubiquitous.
Those are just some of the many trends we could see going forward.
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