Suggested Citation:
Jaller, Miguel and Anmol Pahwa (2019) Evaluating the Environmental Impacts of Online Shopping: A Behavioral Analysis Using the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) Data. Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting

The advent of internet has revolutionized various fields and sectors, and transformed the shopping experience. E-commerce has grown rapidly in the past decade and it is significantly reshaping peoples' lives. It is influencing shopping decisions, be it where to shop, what to shop, or how much to shop. With the e-commerce market expanding, more trucks enter the city today than have ever before, thus, bringing along the negative externalities of congestion and pollution. This study first unravels the underlying shopping behavior–in-store and online–using the 2016 ATUS data. Additionally, the authors develop a number of econometric models to understand the factors that affect shopping decisions, in general, and in-store and online, in particular. The authors magnify, to a macro level, the underlying disaggregate individual shopping behaviors by implementing the models to synthetic populations to estimate the potential vehicle miles traveled and environmental emissions in two metropolitan areas. Finally, the study estimates the impact of rush deliveries and consolidation levels by developing a breakeven analysis between in-store and online shopping.

Key words: Behavior, electronic commerce, freight traffic, shopping