MENA: warehouse automation market size 2014-2025

The warehouse automation market size in the Middle East region was about 500 million U.S. dollars in 2018. It was expected to more than triple its size in 2025 at a value of 1.6 billion U.S. dollars. There has been a continuous increase in warehouse investments due to the increasing levels of automation and supply chain integration.

Global overview of warehouse automation

Warehouses worldwide continue to undergo new innovative solutions and increased investments directed at automation and supply chain integration. The warehouse automation market size was expected to increase from 15 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, doubling in size to reach more than 30 billion U.S. dollars by 2026. This implies that there is still great potential for investment in warehouse automation, which has expanded further following the spike in the e-commerce and online retail industry after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Warehousing operations are a crucial factor in the profitability of supply chain-based businesses. Automation increases the efficiency of warehouse space, inventory operations, and reduces labor supply shortages and costs. Recent trends involved the investment in warehouse robotics post-pandemic in Japan to combat workforce shortages. The Amazon Effect has increased demand for fast online shipments, encouraging warehouse automation to speed up tasks such as order fulfillment, automated packaging, and shipping processes. In 2019, warehouse cloud computing and storage technology had the highest adoption rate globally. By 2025, maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) services were expected to have the highest share of warehouse operations worldwide.

MENA warehouse automation

The logistics sector in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is going through transformations, introducing robotics and smart technologies to increase productivity and accuracy, reduce downtime and processing times. The regional changes in warehousing were not only triggered by smart tech, but also by the recent increased popularity of e-commerce and on-demand deliveries. This heightens the importance of warehouse automation and logistics. Post the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the majority of warehouses in Saudi Arabia were only up to 25 percent automated. The speed of delivery was an important factor that influenced shoppers when choosing online shopping platforms at about 41 percent of respondents in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and 45 percent of respondents in Saudi Arabia. The recent changes demand higher physical automation of warehouses to increase speed, volume, and flexibility of logistics.