Last week I had something delivered from Amazon almost every single day. They weren’t necessarily big things though. One day it was a new corn broom for the patio. Another day it was a small set of hooks that I wanted to hang some lights. And the list goes on.
This is what Amazon wants us to do. Order every little thing, instantly, as soon as you think about it. And it’s magically convenient.
Developers and architects are of course thinking about the implications of this shifting shopping habit on new residential developments. Usually it comes in the form of a large “Amazon room” and/or a parcel locker system.
I recently measured the package room in my building (geeky, I know). It’s about 10′ x 6′ and it sometimes isn’t enough for the volume of daily packages generated by ~360 units.
The other thing that happened last week is that my concierge said to me: “Brandon, we have become a full fledge post office with the amount of packages that come through here every day.” Every evening there’s a lineup of people waiting to collect their packages.
That immediately signaled to me that simply providing a larger room probably isn’t enough. This trend is only going to continue. How could we better design and optimize for this shift?
I am sure that there many companies working on this problem. Hopefully they will surface in the comments and in my inbox following this post.
Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash
Yesterday I ordered something from Amazon Prime. The guaranteed delivery time was today before 9pm, but within an hour of ordering the delivery estimate was updated and it ended up arriving on the same day about 5 hours after my order. I thought this was pretty amazing, particularly because the package was a bit time sensitive.
Delivering to individual residences is more expensive than delivering to more centralized businesses and stores. And with the rise of online shopping, UPS now delivers as many as 31 million packages every day. Because of this, every little detail counts.
Last year the company started installing Bluetooth receivers on the inside of its delivery trucks. If a driver incorrectly loads a package that isn’t on their route, it pushes out a loud beep. (This is one of the many tech and data-driven projects that UPS is working on to ensure it stays competitive.)
Previously there was no final check. If there was a rogue package on the truck, it meant the driver would have to stray from their route, coordinate a handoff, or delay the package for another day. These mishaps can really add up when you’re delivering 31 million packages in a single day.
With Amazon squeezing delivery times and with the rumors that it’s going to start its own delivery business (to compete directly with UPS and FedEx), one has to wonder about the impact that these volumes will have on our cities. Perhaps autonomous vehicles will really become the new roaming retail outlet – ready to deliver as soon as we click buy.
Last week I had something delivered from Amazon almost every single day. They weren’t necessarily big things though. One day it was a new corn broom for the patio. Another day it was a small set of hooks that I wanted to hang some lights. And the list goes on.
This is what Amazon wants us to do. Order every little thing, instantly, as soon as you think about it. And it’s magically convenient.
Developers and architects are of course thinking about the implications of this shifting shopping habit on new residential developments. Usually it comes in the form of a large “Amazon room” and/or a parcel locker system.
I recently measured the package room in my building (geeky, I know). It’s about 10′ x 6′ and it sometimes isn’t enough for the volume of daily packages generated by ~360 units.
The other thing that happened last week is that my concierge said to me: “Brandon, we have become a full fledge post office with the amount of packages that come through here every day.” Every evening there’s a lineup of people waiting to collect their packages.
That immediately signaled to me that simply providing a larger room probably isn’t enough. This trend is only going to continue. How could we better design and optimize for this shift?
I am sure that there many companies working on this problem. Hopefully they will surface in the comments and in my inbox following this post.
Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash
Yesterday I ordered something from Amazon Prime. The guaranteed delivery time was today before 9pm, but within an hour of ordering the delivery estimate was updated and it ended up arriving on the same day about 5 hours after my order. I thought this was pretty amazing, particularly because the package was a bit time sensitive.
Delivering to individual residences is more expensive than delivering to more centralized businesses and stores. And with the rise of online shopping, UPS now delivers as many as 31 million packages every day. Because of this, every little detail counts.
Last year the company started installing Bluetooth receivers on the inside of its delivery trucks. If a driver incorrectly loads a package that isn’t on their route, it pushes out a loud beep. (This is one of the many tech and data-driven projects that UPS is working on to ensure it stays competitive.)
Previously there was no final check. If there was a rogue package on the truck, it meant the driver would have to stray from their route, coordinate a handoff, or delay the package for another day. These mishaps can really add up when you’re delivering 31 million packages in a single day.
With Amazon squeezing delivery times and with the rumors that it’s going to start its own delivery business (to compete directly with UPS and FedEx), one has to wonder about the impact that these volumes will have on our cities. Perhaps autonomous vehicles will really become the new roaming retail outlet – ready to deliver as soon as we click buy.
The Globe and Mail recently published an excellent article on “how e-commerce is driving a real estate revolution.” This is a topic that I’m very interested in: how online manifests itself offline.
Not surprisingly, the article talks a lot about Amazon, including their 4th warehouse in the Greater Toronto Area, which is an 850,000 square foot facility in Brampton equipped with 350-pound robots (8050 Heritage Road).
The first thing I did after reading the article was figure out the location of all of Amazon’s fulfillment centers in the GTA. Amazon doesn’t seem to publish this. But according to TaxJar, they are here (I mapped out the addresses):
There are two in Brampton at the precise location where Hwy 407 (toll route) and Hwy 401 meet. The other three are distributed along Hwy 401 in Milton and in Mississauga.
Now let’s get back to that Globe and Mail article:
- In 6 years, Amazon has leased over 2 million square feet of warehouse space in Canada.
- Toronto is the third largest warehouse market in North America. It represents 43% of Canada’s total inventory.
- Average net rents have increased 9.7% over the past year and vacancy rates have dropped to 2.7% (CBRE data). In Vancouver, those same numbers are 5.1% and 3%, respectively.
- Online shopping is thought to account for about 6.5% of all retail sales in Canada. But in Toronto, 23% of all industrial space is already e-commerce-related (CBRE data, again).
- CBRE believes that every $1 billion in new online sales per year requires an additional 1.25 million square feet of warehouse space.
- Based on online sales projections, Canada needs another 27.5 million square feet of industrial space over the next 5 years. We don’t have that much space in the pipeline.
- Clear heights are increasing for stacking purposes. Amazon’s new Brampton facility is 45 feet tall / 4 floors. 10 years ago new warehouses were 26 feet tall.
- Average sale price of warehouses in the GTA has gone from $119.35 psf to $142.19 psf over the last year.
Perhaps the most interesting takeaway from the article is the discussion around “last mile” distribution hubs. These are fulfillment centers located closer to the city, which are used to offer shorter delivery times:
“…instead of having inventory stored for days or months, these fulfilment centres will turn over their inventory in one day, sometimes twice a day.”
This is something that I addressed in my recent presentation about the “mall of the future” at B+H’s retail design charrette. Where do these physical distribution centers want to be as online sales continue to grow and delivery times continue to compress? Where’s the future growth?
According to this article, it’s going to be in “last mile” fulfillment real estate – relatively smaller spaces that are located very close or directly in the city center.
Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash
The Globe and Mail recently published an excellent article on “how e-commerce is driving a real estate revolution.” This is a topic that I’m very interested in: how online manifests itself offline.
Not surprisingly, the article talks a lot about Amazon, including their 4th warehouse in the Greater Toronto Area, which is an 850,000 square foot facility in Brampton equipped with 350-pound robots (8050 Heritage Road).
The first thing I did after reading the article was figure out the location of all of Amazon’s fulfillment centers in the GTA. Amazon doesn’t seem to publish this. But according to TaxJar, they are here (I mapped out the addresses):
There are two in Brampton at the precise location where Hwy 407 (toll route) and Hwy 401 meet. The other three are distributed along Hwy 401 in Milton and in Mississauga.
Now let’s get back to that Globe and Mail article:
- In 6 years, Amazon has leased over 2 million square feet of warehouse space in Canada.
- Toronto is the third largest warehouse market in North America. It represents 43% of Canada’s total inventory.
- Average net rents have increased 9.7% over the past year and vacancy rates have dropped to 2.7% (CBRE data). In Vancouver, those same numbers are 5.1% and 3%, respectively.
- Online shopping is thought to account for about 6.5% of all retail sales in Canada. But in Toronto, 23% of all industrial space is already e-commerce-related (CBRE data, again).
- CBRE believes that every $1 billion in new online sales per year requires an additional 1.25 million square feet of warehouse space.
- Based on online sales projections, Canada needs another 27.5 million square feet of industrial space over the next 5 years. We don’t have that much space in the pipeline.
- Clear heights are increasing for stacking purposes. Amazon’s new Brampton facility is 45 feet tall / 4 floors. 10 years ago new warehouses were 26 feet tall.
- Average sale price of warehouses in the GTA has gone from $119.35 psf to $142.19 psf over the last year.
Perhaps the most interesting takeaway from the article is the discussion around “last mile” distribution hubs. These are fulfillment centers located closer to the city, which are used to offer shorter delivery times:
“…instead of having inventory stored for days or months, these fulfilment centres will turn over their inventory in one day, sometimes twice a day.”
This is something that I addressed in my recent presentation about the “mall of the future” at B+H’s retail design charrette. Where do these physical distribution centers want to be as online sales continue to grow and delivery times continue to compress? Where’s the future growth?
According to this article, it’s going to be in “last mile” fulfillment real estate – relatively smaller spaces that are located very close or directly in the city center.
Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash
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