The Impact of Spatial Aspects on the Supply Chain and Mobility Demand of Pharmaceutical Products in E-Commerce and Brick-and-Mortar Shopping

Viola Rühlin, Andrea Del Duce and Maike Scherrer ()
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Viola Rühlin: School of Engineering, Institute of Sustainable Development, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, 8400 Winterthur, Switzerland
Andrea Del Duce: School of Engineering, Institute of Sustainable Development, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, 8400 Winterthur, Switzerland
Maike Scherrer: School of Engineering, Institute of Sustainable Development, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, 8400 Winterthur, Switzerland

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 14, 1-17

Abstract: E-commerce has gained increased popularity over the last decade. To date, there is an open debate as to whether e-commerce or brick-and-mortar shopping is environmentally less sustainable, especially due to the growing mobility resources needed for e-commerce distribution. The analysis at hand compares the CO 2 -equivalent emissions of e-commerce and brick-and-mortar shopping of pharmaceutical products considering spatial aspects and the typical transport modal mix of consumers when doing online and offline shopping. The object of analysis is a retailer of pharmaceutical products, more precisely, medicines, which offers, both, brick-and-mortar and online shopping possibilities. The results show that spatial aspects concerning the residential location of consumers, the vehicles used for shopping trips, the shopping basked size, and trip-chaining effects have a crucial impact on the mobility demand and CO 2 -equivalent emissions of the two commerce forms. In general, for rural and sub-urban areas, e-commerce results in lower CO 2 -equivalent emissions, while in urban areas, brick-and-mortar shopping is the favourable solution, if the consumers walk or cycle to the next pharmacy.

Keywords: e-commerce; brick-and-mortar shopping; life cycle assessment; environmental sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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