Other findings include: More than 40 percent of respondents cited shorter delivery times as a key measure requiring warehouse investment. Also indicative of increased consumer demand is the expected increase by 76 percent of those surveyed in the number of warehouse locations and volume of items shipped out of warehouses.

Half of the surveyed IT and operations decision makers planned to move to a more modern, full-featured warehouse management system last year while 75 percent of them plan this in 2020 to help manage the increased locations and items shipped.

Fifty-one percent of those surveyed expected increased investment in real-time location systems that track inventory and assets throughout the warehouse last year, but this number escalates to 76 percent of respondents in 2020.

Executives anticipate an increase in inbound items that will be barcoded in the next five years, from 66 percent of survey respondents in 2015 to 82 percent in 2020.

By 2020, respondents cited plans to make investments in the following processes and tools: increasing volume of items shipped (76 percent), equipping staff with technology (73 percent), barcode scanning (68 percent), tablets (66 percent) and Internet of Things (62 percent).       

The October 2015 survey was completed by 1,378 IT and warehouse professionals in 12 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Source: Zebra Technologies