If there are to be any winners of the COVID-19 pandemic, then e-commerce is undoubtedly one. Turnover in the industry continues to grow and the recent (partial) lockdown in large parts of Europe further supports this growing trend. At the same time, online retailers are promising ever shorter delivery times for delivering goods to customers. As a result, the delivery of online goods poses ever greater challenges for the logistics industry. Primarily, the timely and punctual delivery to customers, the so-called “last mile”. Increasingly, logistics service providers are working together with the real estate industry to develop new solutions for last mile logistics. It is expected that in the future, logistics properties will no longer be built on greenfield sites outside cities, but increasingly in cities themselves. In other words, inner-city distribution centres are needed for online retailers to guarantee their delivery times of one to two hours. Inner-city logistics properties will need to allow for storage and packaging on site due to their building structure. In addition, the location of the property will need good transport connections, so that deliveries can be handled without issues.
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