Everything you need to know about the Sortation Equipment market

We at STIQ published our 4th annual Sortation Equipment market report. We cover everything that's happening in the sortation equipment market, focusing on both pre-pack unit sortation and post-pack parcel sortation. We talked to 40 experts, including Unbox Robotics and Eurosort (both sponsors of the report), Vanderlande, DCS, TGW, Knapp / DFT, Trew, and Itoh Denki to get a global view on market sentiment and technological trends.

Read the whole report for free here courtesy of EuroSort and Unbox Robotics.

This report also contains two end-customer interviews with leading 3PLs who give their insights into the world of sortation equipment, and how it will change in the future.

Key findings- sortation equipment

• There has been a greater focus over the last year on last-mile automation as the provider network proliferates, and delivery promises grow more important
• Mobile robot sortation adoption continues, with end-customers appreciating their flexibility and modularity
• Density of operations and 
• Brownfield continues to be the predominant focus as end customers invest less in new facilities. Optimization and improved throughput density are the name of the game
• This is leading to a higher number of projects, but of a smaller project size compared to two years ago
• Leading ecommerce players are beginning to ramp up investment, leading to improving market sentiment versus 
  

Sortation market explainer

Sortation equipment can be defined and segmented in different ways, and STIQ delineates it by focusing on pre- and post-pack sortation types. Pre-pack focuses on eaches or individual items, whilst post-pack focuses predominantly on parcels.
 

Sortation equipment has many different applications, and which application is defined by a combination of different requirements and variables such as space available, throughput, cost, scalability, etc. 
 

This can then dictates the choice of technology used, from high throughput cross-belt sorters to diverters or mobile robot sortation.

Is the market returning to growth?

Yes, market sentiment is broadly positive compared to two years ago. Whilst not reaching the heady heights of Covid level investment, large ecommerce companies have begun to reinvest in sortation equipment to optimize their operations. Geopolitical disruption continues to be a concern and caused delays in 2025, but end customers need to get more out of their existing facilities so brownfield projects are being realised. 

This has led to smaller projects on average as fewer larger projects are coming to market. 

Where is sortation investment going? 

E-commerce remains the primary driver of sortation equipment, but the focus of end customers has shifted towards last-mile facilities. In part, this is due to increased complexity for last-mile networks, but we have also heard about the business case for smaller automation improving due to technological advancement and the increased cost of labor. As delivery promises increase, sortation has to happen closer to the customer- and more accurately.

Which geographies are seeing growth?

E-commerce in China has boomed in China over the last 7 years, with major investments and investment in new facilities. Whilst new projects are still coming to market, there has been a relative slowdown. 

There has also been a large increase in the number of vendors in the Chinese market, which has created a large degree of pricing pressure for projects. This has led to an increased focus for companies to internationize, primarily through local system integrators who understand the local market and regulations.

Europe has borne the brunt of sluggish economic conditions in recent years, but there has been an increased growth of sortation happening in Southern Europe, such as Italy and Spain. These countries did not over-invest to the same degree during Covid, and we are seeing some catching up currently. Western and Northern Europe still remains a large market.

The US has also experienced some destabilizing geopolitics, with tariffs and war impacting some end customer confidence. Overall the view is that customers are now moving forward with projects, with the major e-commerce companies investing again which has an outsized impact on the North American market. 

We are also beginning to see investment in other areas, such as LATAM. Whilst price is a big KPC for the region, this area has historically been less ready to automate sortation. Growing wages and labor availability means we expect this area to grow over the next few years.

What is driving investment?

The underlying drivers for sortation equipment remains- growing wages, labor scarcity, e-commerce and D2C growth, and an increased customer delivery expectation.

These factors will continue to grow and support the case for automation.

What are people prioritising in investment?

Due to the inherent uncertainty in the market, the focus has been on deploying flexible and modular solutions. Vendors are also playing an increasingly consultative role in helping deploy total solutions, as sortation equipment becomes a greater focus. Being able to add additional modules, destinations, or chutes as you go is desired by customers. 

Density is becoming ever more critical as floorspace is at a premium. Solutions that can maximise the number of destinations through any means possible (such as EuroSort's e-sorter adding a vertical dimension) means that customers can do more with their existing facilities. 

We have also seen increasingly creative methods to get more out of a solution. ASRS grids are being used as batch pickers, feeding into a unit or batch sorter to sort into individual order destinations.  

How does mobile robot sortation fit in?

Mobile robot sortation has seen increased adoption over the last few years, as by nature the technology can be scaled alongside demand by adding more robots- as long as there is sufficient floor space to avoid congestion. 

Unbox Robotics mobile sortation floor

The technology is used at both pre- and post-pack stage, and will typically be for <6-7k unit per hour throughput. This means it is not mainly in direct competition with high throughput sorters such as cross-belts, but is often used in conjunction for secondary sortation. 

The market has grown more familiar with this technology, and the model can also be delivered via RaaS which is of interest to customers such as 3PLs who may want to avoid heavy Capex spending.

3D mobile sortation providers (such as Unbox Robotics) discharge locations that can sort vertically, improving the destination density of the solution.

Read the whole report for free here courtesy of EuroSort and Unbox Robotics.