The net environmental impact of online shopping, beyond the substitution bias

Abstract

Internet, digitalisation and access to technology have transformed contemporary consumption patterns and habits. Whether or not these changes hold beneficial or detrimental implications for society is subject to ongoing debate. Specifically concerning the environmental impacts of online and omnichannel retail, claims have been made on both sides: crediting the efficiency of home deliveries versus individual shopping trips on the one hand and pointing out complex consumer behaviour on the other hand. Despite intensive research efforts, a solid consensus lacks. The disperse and contradicting scientific knowledge base that is currently available prevents policymakers and practitioners from implementing sustainability improving measures and from steering consumers towards sustainable practices. Supported by a systematic review of the literature, this article presents a framework for understanding the net environmental sustainability of shopping. The debate is broken down in three impact categories that need to be considered simultaneously: individual purchases, consumer behaviour and consumption geography. The majority of research articles focus on the environmental impact of purchasing a single item or a basket of items, in which in-store purchases are substituted by purchases online. Such studies conclude in favour of e-commerce. The balance shifts when taking changes in behaviour and geography into consideration. While behavioural reflections are on the rise, hardly any empirical work takes the spatial (re)organisation of businesses and consumers into account. The article surpasses the case-study approach and in doing so comprises the body of literature in a solid framework that is able to guide future discussions and research in more sustainable directions.

Introduction

Consumption patterns and habits have changed tremendously over the last decades, driven in particular by the development of the worldwide web, the digitalisation of processes throughout all aspects of society and the incremental improvements in access to technology. As with many societal developments, the consequences of transformed consumer behaviour are discussed and studied at large. Notable subjects of debate have been the impact of online shopping on local and independent retail, the implications of the on-demand economy on the organisation of work and the transformation of restaurants and supermarkets due to meal kit and prepared meal delivery services. Subject of ongoing debate as well is the impact of online and omnichannel retail on the environment, i.e. on climate change, air pollution, congestion and noise emissions.

As a sector, retail is one of the most visible economic activities. Retailing accounts for 3.6 million businesses in Europe and, together with wholesaling, represents over 23% of all enterprises (European Commission, 2018). To organise their activities, retailers depend heavily on transport, a leading contributor to greenhouse gas and air polluting emissions (WHO, 2011). Transport operations of retailers involve different forms of transport; different sizes of containers and vehicles; and the scheduling and availability of drivers and vehicles (Fernie and Sparks, 2009). Among consumers, travel for shopping represents approximately 20% of trips (Guy, 2009; Jiao et al., 2011). Transport for retail is an important aspect of mobility (Hagberg and Holmberg, 2017) and thus vital to include in our global and local environmental sustainability goals.

The advent of the online retail channel, said to replace many individual store visits by one efficient home delivery round, inevitably spurred questions about its capacity to lower the retail sector's environmental footprint (Cairns, 2005; Cullinane, 2009). E-commerce is defined as the sale or purchase of goods or services, conducted over computer networks by methods specifically designed for the purpose of receiving or placing of orders, whereas payment and delivery of the goods or services do not have to be conducted online (OECD, 2011). In essence, the environmental sustainability question of shopping online or in-store is a matter of transport operations and conditions, albeit one that concerns retailers, logistics service providers as well as consumers.

While e-commerce comprises pure players with an online-only approach, it also advanced omnichannel retail. This retail model comprehends the gradual change of pure players to a combined and integrated bricks-and-clicks approach (Lazaris and Vrechopoulos, 2013; Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson, 2019; Verhoef et al., 2015). Traditional store-based retailers in particular transformed towards an omnichannel retail approach first (e.g. many high-street clothing chain brands). Later on, also established pure online players created a physical presence (e.g. Amazon with the acquisition of Whole Foods). As such, the retail sector developed into a realm in which online and offline channels blurred and converged into one another. Conventional in-store shopping has online extensions through mobile web-shops, kiosks and screens, among others. Contrary, through services such as click-and-collect (or buy-online-pick-up-in-store), ship-from-store and in-store return of online purchases, online shopping has a physical extension in-store.

Along with these advancements, it has become increasingly difficult to understand the environmental implications of shopping in one retail channel over another. Accordingly, research initiatives aimed to provide an answer to this question are bound by parameters, assumptions and specific context conditions. Although based on solid scientific knowledge (e.g. consumers' average travel distances for shopping), these parameters, assumptions and conditions are often set quite strictly (e.g. specific product type), leading to contradicting research results. Setting system boundaries is necessary and not problematic in itself. In providing answers and guidelines on which way of shopping impacts the environment less, the narrow purchase-focused approach that is used, is.

By comparing for example the vehicle-kilometres and vehicle emission factors associated with an in-store purchase and a purchase executed online, very detailed and context-specific research results are obtained that are hardly generalisable into actionable guidelines. More importantly, this approach disregards the broader behavioural and geographical developments that are pushed by e-commerce. On the behavioural side, Rosqvist and Hiselius (2016) for example discuss “car-dependent lifestyles” facilitated by online shopping while Buldeo Rai et al. (2019) investigate the carbon footprint of pre and post-purchase travel behaviour. On the geographical side, Wygonik and Goodchild (2016) demonstrate the importance of land use conditions such as consumer density and warehouse location while Gee et al. (2019) consider supply chain differences in production and storage location for online and offline shopping scenarios. Possibly, such changes in consumer behaviour or consumption geography could impact the environmental footprint of online shopping to a more important extent.

The objective of this article is to comprehensively approach the environmental sustainability question of shopping online and offer a comprehensive view that explicitly includes behavioural and geographical considerations. By conducting a systematic review of the scientific literature, all relevant parameters are organised in a summary framework. The article contributes by providing a straightforward basis for discussion as well as communicable and actionable guidelines for every stakeholder involved in the retail realm, including consumers. The methodological approach applied in this article is presented in section two and its findings are discussed in section three. The fourth section ends with concluding remarks.