Ecommerce in Europe will create 200,000 new jobs thanks to e-fulfilment

Ecommerce in Europe will grow so strong in the next five years, there are probably 200,000 extra jobs needed in order to process all orders in distribution centers across the continent. Hot spots will be the United Kingdom, Germany and France, but strong growth is also expected in Poland, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.

This is what industrial-building owner Prologis expects, as Emerce writes. The company, which has Rakuten, Tesco and Amazon among its clients, analyzed data from ten countries and two hundred lease transactions in Europe during the last three years. And after using its own resources and those of Goldman Sachs, Cushman & Wakefield and more, it’s expecting strong growth.

15 million square meters needed
Prologis figured that for every extra one billion euros worth of ecommerce transactions, floor space of 77,000 square meters is needed for additional storage and order processing. Expectations are ecommerce in Europe will increase by 200 billion euros in the next five years. This would mean there are at least 15 million square meters of new storage space needed.

If the data of recent years represent the upcoming situation, most demand will be filled with buildings up to 40,000 square meters and a quarter will be over 75,000 square meters. Half was in existing buildings, the other half in new construction.

Unsure if companies will find specialized employees
Despite the 200,000 extra jobs needed, it’s unsure if companies will find appropriate workers for this. For their distribution centers, online retailers are looking for employees who are more specialized than those working in more general storage units. According to Prologis it will be hard to find good people, especially outside the big cities.

In Europe, most growth will take place in the United Kingdom, Germany and France, Prologis predicts, while in the Netherlands, Poland and the Czech Republic a growth of between 5 and 10 percent is expected.