The warehouse automation market has been on a tear the last couple of years, driven by major spending by Amazon and other companies with ecommerce fulfillment operations. With the ecommerce surge that occurred during the early months of the pandemic, companies with fulfillment operations looked to expand their DC networks and the automation used within them, fueling record growth for providers of warehouse automation systems.
The magnitude of this recent growth is detailed in a new study from research firm Interact Analysis, which found the market grew by 28% in 2021, with revenues reaching $36 billion, up from $28.5 billion in 2020. Interact attributes the high growth in 2021 to companies readying for continued hyper growth in ecommerce, but now that pandemic conditions have eased and consumers have returned to stores, ecommerce growth has moderated, with some major buyers of automation including Amazon, responding by scaling back on DC expansion plans.
