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This statistic describes the logistics market growth in the Gulf Cooperation Council from 2015 to 2017 with a forecast until 2020. It was estimated that the logistics market in the GCC region will grow to the value of *** billion U.S. dollars by 2020.

Global overview of warehouse automation

The recent changes in warehouse automation technology were a game-changer in the logistics industry. The market size of warehouse automation worldwide was expected to exceed ** billion U.S. dollars by 2026, from about ** billion U.S. dollars in 2019. Continuous new innovative solutions and smart technology support the growth potential of the industry. Logistics is a very important factor in the growth of businesses that depend on supply chains such as those in the e-commerce and retail sectors. Those sectors have witnessed a huge increase in demand since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, due to the lockdown precautionary measures which directed many people towards online shopping. The largest percentage of first-time online shoppers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were buying pharmaceutical products, while the largest share of first time shoppers in Saudi Arabia were buying groceries. The profitability of supply chain businesses highly depends on warehouse operations. Warehouse automation increases warehouse space efficiency and speeds up inventory operations. It also solves issues that arise from labor shortages and high costs. The most adopted warehouse technology in 2019 was cloud computing and storage technology. Maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) services technology were expected to make up the highest share of warehouse automation by 2025.

MENA warehouse automation

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the increase of demand and use of e-commerce and e-retail caused the logistics sector to work towards increasing productivity and cost-efficiency. Companies started to introduce automation into distribution logistics such as the food producer Almarai in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the UAE also stressed the significance of automation as they launched an awareness campaign about the importance of smart warehouse management systems (WMS) to more than 21 thousand companies. The warehouse automation market in the region was expected to reach a value of *** billion U.S. dollars by 2025. The growth in e-commerce is the main driver for warehouse automation. More than ** percent of respondents in a survey in Saudi Arabia and UAE stated that fast delivery is one of the main factors influencing their choice of online shopping platforms.