Market Trends of Europe Intermodal Terminals Industry
This section covers the major market trends shaping the Europe Intermodal Terminals Market according to our research experts:
Growth of Webshop Traffic Drives the Market
The years 2020 and 2021 have been exceptional due to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly regarding e-commerce in Europe. Alongside the stringent (economic) measures taken to mitigate the spread of the virus, lockdowns (including closures of physical stores), and health/safety measures gave a boost to online shopping across Europe. In 2021, leading webshops in Europe witnessed an increase of 13% in web visitors as compared to 2020. In the first six months of 2021, web traffic grew by 8% compared to the same period in 2020, and by 18% compared to the same period in pre-COVID 2019.
The nature of webshops (i.e., sector, type, etc.) largely determines the extent to which they profited from the increase in online shopping due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, e-stores in the sectors of groceries, (alcoholic) beverages & pet supplies, as well as home & garden, witnessed the largest annual average increase in web traffic. On the contrary, webshops selling bicycles & (car) accessories experienced a decline in the number of visitors to their websites in 2021. To reiterate, these annual growth figures do not reflect the large fluctuations in web traffic due to COVID-19 measures over time, however, these figures offer insights into overall e-commerce market trends.
Increasing Start-ups and Warehousings Drive New Business Models in the Market
Most of the new entrants to the logistics sector are start-ups, and many of these are looking to use new technology to enter the industry. To date most of these are in 'asset light' parts of the value chain; for example, virtual freight forwarders. These assets or asset-light businesses exploit digital technology to offer interactive benchmarking of freight rates, or match shippers with available capacity.
Many of the new entrants in logistics are basing their offerings on more agile pricing. Some enable carriers to bid on loads, allowing them to lower their bids to fill up capacity. They're also providing quotes more quickly and increasing price transparency - for example, by linking via API directly to a large number of carriers, and providing customers with their negotiated rates for each of the carriers they use so they can compare directly.
Norwegian start-up Nimber matches commuters and travelers with consumers looking to ship something, whether it be a piano across the country or a skateboard or document across town. Technology players or technology-automotive collaborations may enter the industry, especially with ideas like self-driving lockers, or machine-to-machine parcel-station loading for last-mile delivery. Crowdsharing platforms may also emerge from autonomous vehicle development, or independently. As car-sharing increases, so may the use of the storage space available in these vehicles as a flexible way to expand capacity.
The industry's customers may also become significant new entrants. Amazon is an obvious example: it's looking to expand its in-house expertise in warehousing as well as develop its delivery capabilities. Hence its acquisition of a warehouse automation specialist, now part of its Amazon Robotics business unit. The company has leased 20 aircraft to handle more of its shipments15 and is piloting a 'Prime Air' 30-minute delivery offering using drones.16 Bloomberg has also reported that Amazon has plans to launch its own logistics offerings, a project allegedly referred to as 'Dragon Boat'.
