Online retail has grown significantly in the last six years, reaching €4.3 billion at the end of last year, four times higher than in 2014, rising by almost 20% compared to 2018. The situation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the development of online commerce after the closing of non-essential stores, while employees had to work from home with children trying to adapt to distance-learning. Electro-IT stores remained open throughout the state of emergency and recorded increased sales both in physical stores and especially in the online sector.

"The online sales of home appliance retailers are growing and therefore we expect a high need for storage space. Currently, these retailers take up an area of 330,000 sqm of logistics space, most of the warehouses being located near Bucharest, in industrial premises owned by international developers such as P3 and CTP. In the next 18-24 months, the logistics area leased by electro-IT retailers could increase by at least 50%", explained Andrei Jerca, Head of Industrial Services, CBRE Romania.

Another category of tenants that continues to expand on the industrial space market is that of retailers in the home & deco sector, according to the Romania e-commerce report, launched by CBRE.

„With up to 40,000 sqm leased in Bucharest by the end of 2019, home & deco retailers are at the beginning of their expansion and investment in logistic spaces Some of them chose Bucharest as their main location for the physical stores, which is why the logistics spaces are also located in this area", added Andrei Jerca.

Regarding the evolution of e-commerce, CBRE expects new increases, on the one hand as the internet penetration rate continues to rise, this year the threshold of 70% being expected to exceed, and on the other hand as almost 25% of Romania's population is represented by

inhabitants of 15 and 34 years old, respectively generations Y (millennials) and Z (post-millennials) known to be tech-savvy, service-oriented and speed driven.

"An interesting phenomenon to note during the lockdown period was the fact that retailers with a strong online presence and a clearly defined online strategy performed much better than retailers for whom online presence was secondary to brick & mortar stores. We expect retailers in the electro-it and home & deco sectors to assign new resources for the development of online sales platforms while reinventing the shopping experience and consulting services offered in physical stores", informed Carmen Ravon, Head of Advisory & Transaction, Retail, CBRE Romania. 

On the industrial and logistics spaces market in Romania, approximately  97,000 sqm were delivered in the first three months, the modern industrial stock thus reaching 4.49 million sqm, according to CBRE Research. Most of the new supply, about 80%, is in Bucharest and was represented by the expansion of two projects, WDP Ștefăneștii de Jos and Eli Park I, while the remaining 20% was delivered in the centre of the country, respectively Brașov and Sibiu.

The total leasing activity in the first quarter amounted to 172,400 sqm. The largest transaction in the first quarter was the pre-lease of an area of about 70,000 sqm by Ikea in the CTPark Bucharest West project. All in all, Bucharest attracted 81% of the total leasing activity, while the west and northwest of the country, along with the east and northeast regions, attracted 19%.