Retail logistics has become the hidden architecture of European commerce. Every click-to-cart moment sets off a chain of inbound replenishment, warehousing, order processing, and final-mile delivery that now must run at near-real-time speed. Europe’s business-to-consumer e-commerce turnover reached €899 billion in 2023, up 3.4% year-on-year, confirming that even traditional high-street retailers now operate as e-commerce businesses after the pandemic reset.
Scope of Retail Logistics Solutions
Modern retail-logistics programmes extend well beyond the movement of goods from A to B. They bundle a wide variety of specialist capabilities that can be offered in-house, through third-party logistics providers, or in collaborative mixed-networks. Key solution types include:
- Inbound supplier management and purchase-order tracking – real-time visibility of manufacturing slots, sailing schedules, and ETAs into distribution centers.
- Automated warehousing and fulfillment – automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), goods-to-person shuttles, autonomous mobile robots, and vision-guided sorters that shrink pick-to-ship lead times.
- Cross-docking and trans-shipment hubs – rapid turn-arounds that bypass storage, ideal for fast-moving promotional stock or temperature-controlled groceries.
- Value-added services (VAS) – kitting, labelling, price-tagging, gift-wrapping, or light final assembly that personalise product for specific stores or campaigns.
- Multimodal transportation and carrier orchestration – dynamic routing across parcel, pallet, rail, road, and short-sea options, chosen for cost, speed, or carbon intensity.
- Last-mile and micro-last-mile delivery management – integration with parcel lockers, in-store click-and-collect, same-day couriers, and two-person delivery for oversize items.
- Reverse-logistics and refurbishment loops – systematic capture, grading, repair or resale of returns to protect margin and reduce waste.
- Temperature-controlled and specialty flows – dedicated chains for chilled, frozen, hazardous or high-value merchandise, often with GDP or TAPA certification.
- Omnichannel and micro-fulfilment node design – store-backroom or urban dark-store automation that brings stock within single-hour delivery radius.
- Sustainability and carbon-tracking modules – analytics dashboards that allocate Scope 3 emissions at SKU or shipment level and feed CSRD disclosures.
- Data and inventory-optimisation platforms – AI forecasting, demand-shaping and distributed order management that balance on-hand stock against service-level promises.
Digital Transformation and Automation
Automation is the chief differentiator today. Europe’s warehouse-automation market was valued at USD 5.95 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at more than 15 % CAGR through 2034 as robotics and AI orchestration replace manual tasks. Parallel investment is pouring into micro-fulfilment: analysts size the global MFC market at USD 6.2 billion in 2024, rising to USD 31.6 billion by 2030. In practice this is driving a wave of compact, automated nodes inside European cities, allowing grocers and fashion chains to promise one-hour click-and-collect or delivery windows even in congested urban cores.
Sustainability Pressures and Green Logistics
Regulation is moving as fast as technology. Under the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), around 50 000 companies must quantify and publish Scope 3 transport emissions for fiscal years beginning 2024. Retailers must also prepare for the EU Deforestation Regulation, whose core obligations for medium and large traders now start on 30 December 2025 after a one-year delay agreed in October 2024. Progress is visible on the ground: International Forwarding Association (IFA) member CTS Group converted its Dutch road fleet entirely to renewable HVO100 diesel in January 2025, cutting well-to-wheel CO₂ by up to 90 %. Similar momentum is evident in eco-designed packaging, modal shifts to rail, and granular carbon dashboards embedded in transport-management systems.
E-commerce and the Last-Mile Challenge
The last mile remains the costliest leg. Europe’s dedicated last-mile delivery market generated USD 30.2 billion in revenue in 2023 and is trending toward USD 54.9 billion by 2032, a CAGR of roughly 8 %. Automation is moving onto pavements and into the air: one European sidewalk-robot fleet surpassed 8 million autonomous deliveries in spring 2025, while a Dublin-based drone network has already logged 200 000 flights and plans to cover one million residents before year-end 2025. City authorities are responding with new curb-management rules and quiet-flight corridors that balance convenience with noise and safety concerns.
Regional Infrastructure Trends
Logistics performance still depends on physical corridors. Since mid-2024 the EU has folded its eleven Rail Freight Corridors into the broader European Transport Corridors under the revised TEN-T regulation, aligning capital spending and slot allocation to support modal shift from road to rail. Consultancy forecasts suggest an additional USD 8.36 billion in rail-freight revenue between 2024 and 2029 as new 740-metre-train sidings and automated port-rail interfaces come online. One emblematic project is Romania’s approval of 750 million lei (~€152 million) for new rail links into the Black Sea port of Constanţa, a critical outlet for grain and retail imports alike since disruption of traditional Ukrainian routes.
IFA partners are embedding these trends in their service portfolios. Across the association, members are investing in AI-enabled booking portals, bonded omnichannel hubs near major airports, and collaborative line-haul networks that let independent forwarders pool volumes while meeting the tighter emissions thresholds now written into EU law.