Environmental footprint of B2C e-commerce: assessment and comparison of offline and online retailing channels

Environmental sustainability in logistics is among the major issues for practitioners, academia, as well as citizens and municipalities. As technology continues to advance and retailers develop their online sales channels, scholars focused their attention on comparing the environmental impact of traditional and e-commerce purchases. Despite most researchers agree on the lower emissions of online shopping, others discuss potential negative factors that may compromise the environmental friendliness of e-commerce. The aim of this study is therefore to assess and compare the emissions of online and offline purchases in the consumer electronics industry. An analytical model is developed and applied to different areas (urban and rural) considering both Home Delivery (HD) and Click & Collect (C&C) solutions for online retailing. Results prove comparable environmental footprints of HD and C&C solutions, which are significantly lower compared to offline purchases, even if the emission released in the C&C present higher variability depending on the customer trip. While for traditional retailing the highest environmental impact comes from the shops, for the HD and the C&C the most polluting processes are, respectively, last mile delivery and customer trip. The carbon footprint of the three purchasing processes results to be lower in the metropolitan area, while, due to the lower capillarity of hubs and the lower delivery density, the distribution in smaller urban contexts generates higher emissions. Similarly, the lower capillarity of shops in rural areas leads to a higher carbon footprint for traditional retailing. Despite the overall footprint is affected by industry-related incidence of returns, the results obtained can be considered representative even for other sectors. The present research offers contributions to both scholars and practitioners. On the academic side, it provides a deeper understanding of the primary factors contributing to the emissions release across different urban areas. On the managerial side, it may be useful to support environmentally conscious decision-making processes, suggesting proper initiatives aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of the delivery processes, among which influencing customers’ decision-making processes and reducing the environmental impacts of their trips.