Warehouse software to see 12.7% CAGR

  • July 1, 2024
  • Steve Rogerson

The warehouse software market will see a CAGR of 12.7% until 2030, according to market intelligence firm Interact Analysis.

The standalone warehouse management system (WMS) market remains the largest, but other warehouse automation-related software is growing fast.

According to the research, the warehouse software market is facing a rapid growth trajectory. In 2023, the market was valued at $7.2bn, and this is expected to soar to $16.6bn by 2030.

Overall, the standalone WMS remains the largest software category. The markets for other warehouse automation-related software, such as robotic picking software, multi-fleet orchestration platforms and warehouse control systems (WCS), are expected to grow rapidly and at a higher growth rate than the total warehouse software market.

The automation-related software segment will expand at a CAGR of approximately 19.5% between 2023 and 2030, compared with 12.7% for the warehouse software market as a whole. The boundaries between different types of warehouse software vendors have become blurred as vendors expand their software product offering. Many traditional WMS vendors have started to offer warehouse execution systems (WES) and WCS, for example.

According to the study, the deployment of a WES leads to increased operational warehouse efficiency. Not only does the system provide visibility into warehouse asset operations but it also has the capability to release orders and assign tasks dynamically based on the real-time operation status of assets. As a result, bottlenecks can be avoided, and efficiency is increased. The WES data can also be used to predict future warehouse automation and capacity efficiency, while providing feedback to warehouse managers.

However, the biggest question surrounding the WES market isn’t the benefits, but rather who will be providing it. Historically, automation vendors have been the main provider of WES, given the amount of data they have on throughput rates and system constraints. However, there is strong growth in standalone WES (independent of the WCS and the WMS) and embedded WES, where the WES is embedded into the WMS.

“The exponential growth of the warehouse automation-related software segment we have observed is the result of a few key drivers,” said Irene Zhang, senior analyst at Interact Analysis (interactanalysis.com). “First of all, the growth of warehouse automation has created the need for software that can be used to control and execute. There is also a need to optimise the overall throughput due to the growth of modular and standardised automation subsystems, which require orchestration and execution of various modules. Finally, the growth of the mobile robot market has driven demand for fleet management systems. As well as this, the availability of the robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) model has also contributed to the widespread adoption of mobile robots.”

The report provides an analysis of the software used to manage, execute and control warehousing operations, exploring ten common categories of warehouse software in detail.