Serious shortage of logistics warehouse supply
According to the Dai De Liang report, online shopping sales in China have increased by 99% annually over the past five years, far exceeding the 9% annual growth rate in the United States. Looking at the sales figures on November 11, 2012 (Singles Day), Taobao, Chinas largest shopping website, and its online business-to-person (B2C) shopping platform (Tianmao) achieved sales of more than RMB 19.2 billion on that day, 21 times the daily average retail sales in Hong Kong.
Ji Yanxun, director of the Greater China Research Department of Dai De Liang Xing, pointed out: "Chinas e-commerce consumption shows a rapid growth, but at present Chinas Internet penetration rate is 37%, which is far below the level of developed countries. Therefore, Chinas online consumption still has tremendous growth potential. From now on to 2015, it is estimated that 30 million people will shop on the Internet for the first time every year in China. Such rapid growth momentum will bring new space for real estate development.
The report shows that e-commerce has changed the management of supply chain from supply-oriented to demand-oriented. The ultimate goal of business is not to use warehouses to store surplus goods and smooth supply chain operations, but to deliver goods to customers (that is, to fulfill orders and complete delivery). Warehouse has always been a supporting equipment in business, but it plays an important role in e-commerce, and has become the main contact interface between goods suppliers and customers. This change has a far-reaching impact on the location, specifications and location of logistics property.
Partial rent increased by 85%.
The report shows that in recent years, online shopping has become more and more B2C (enterprise-to-individual) mode, which is expected to account for 40% by 2015, which will also make the role of logistics industry more prominent in e-commerce. However, the supply of modern logistics warehouse facilities is insufficient. At present, this kind of property only accounts for 2% of the total warehouse area in China, that is, most of them belong to middle-end or low-end logistics property.
However, some of them are rebuilt from factories. The building quality is rough. There are many shortcomings, such as insufficient floor height, lack of equipment for loading and unloading cargo, inconvenience of transportation vehicles and so on. In first-tier cities, the shortage of logistics warehouses has pushed up the rent growth of such properties. In the past year, the rent of logistics parks in some areas of Shanghai has risen by 85%. Some enterprises have chosen to locate their warehouses in neighbouring areas with cheaper rents. Therefore, Dai Deliang believes that tapping the market demand in central and Western China and developing small warehouses adapted to each market are good timing choices, because each city will need more modern logistics warehouses. This kind of property will have better development prospects in the future.