Covid-19 & European Real Estate Logistics: Dealing with new market dynamics

Logistics in the COVID-19 world

The lockdown measures implemented between the end of Q1 and beginning of Q2 2020 in most of the developed countries created a strong impact on consumers’ behaviors and habits that has ultimately affected the way companies run their businesses and distribute their products or services.

The nature of the crisis materialized with differing intensity and duration across countries and businesses; the extent of the decline in economic activity has been mostly influenced by the type of need covered by operators and also depended on the existence of any “socially distant” alternatives to satisfy the relevant business or social need (i.e. primary, covering basic needs as food, pharmacy and fast-moving consumer goods, and secondary, namely clothing, electronics and other goods, such as luxury and leisure products and services). 

In this scenario, logistics operators have generally shown more resilient fundamentals, due to their ability to provide goods to final consumers with reduced physical/human interaction.