The shelving market - Italy

1.1 Definition and scope of study

When we speak about shelving systems, we analyze a market divided into two main branches: Metal Shelves System Market and Wood Shelves System Market. The first one is the largest one, linked to the retail shop design and inventories, useful to dispose products and to organize stocks; the wood shelves are, on the other hand, useful to dispose stuffs in private houses or expose products in retail shops but less used for stock inventories due to their material’s less resistance to weight and wear. The metal shelves market performance is closely linked to the performance of retail companies and the opening of new stores. The companies that hold a greater market share in the demand for shelving systems are pharmacies, supermarkets, superstores and fast-fashion companies, which need to display a large quantity of products and stock the inventories in the easiest way to reach them fast. 

In 2020, the world market for Shelving Systems experienced a reduction in demand for stores, but an increase linked to dark stores and all e-commerce warehouses. It is difficult to estimate the global market value of the Shelves System market due to a high fragmentation in the production but we can notice a positive expected increase between 2021 and 2027. 

In Italy, the request for Shelves Systems has increased due to the increase of shops and warehouses of the biggest retail brands. The demand of goods has been moving to the online market since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, but the necessity of shelves is constantly increasing. In Italy there are a few big producers that are able to build customized shelves both for shops and warehouses, but the market is very fragmented on the Small-Medium Enterprises side by which it is controlled together with the artisans of metal and wood. Italy is the home country of these artisans and therefore the market is influenced by them.

The latest trends in the shelves market are smart shelves; this typology of shelves employs RFID technology to automatically track inventory in retail stores. To develop Smart Shelves, weight sensors are installed within or beneath shelves; sensors are used to keep track of the amount of merchandise on the shelves, creating a huge quantity of data, useful to know more about your customers behaviors and your customer preferences and fundamental to reduce inventory costs.

Future smart shelves will be able to let you buy products without passing through the checkout, as it is happening is some experimental amazon grocery shops in the USA.