- Revenue surged by more than a fifth in the year to 31 May to a record $84bn
- Labour constraints have been driving up operating costs
The accelerated shift towards e-commerce has been one of the biggest trends we’ve seen during the pandemic, with the Mastercard Economics Institute estimating that consumers spent an additional $900bn (£646bn) online in 2020. Across the globe, e-commerce accounted for around $1 of every $5 spent on retail last year, compared with $1 out of every $7 in 2019.
Amazon (US:AMZN) has been a big beneficiary of the online shopping boom, but it is not the only one. Logistics services have also been in high demand to store and transport goods along the supply chain, and deliver all of those packages to consumers’ front doors. As such, investors have been piling into everything from big-box landlords such as Warehouse Reit (WHR) to ‘value-added’ supply chain specialists such as Clipper Logistics (CLG). Delivery companies including Royal Mail (RMG) and FedEx (US:FDX) have also seen their share prices surge over the past year or so.