Mobility effects of b2c and c2c e-commerce in the Netherlands: a quantitative assessment

✍ Scribed by Jesse W.J. Weltevreden; Orit Rotem-Mindali

• Book ID: 116710519
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 198 KB
• Volume: 17
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0966-6923
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2008.11.005

✦ Synopsis

For more than a decade researchers have been interested in the implications of e-commerce for personal travel and freight transport. So far it is mostly the mobility effects of business-to-consumer (b2c) e-commerce that have been studied. However, consumer-to-consumer (c2c) e-commerce is becoming popular and may have important implications for mobility as well. Moreover, most studies conducted thus far have looked at the consequences of b2c e-commerce for either personal or freight travel, but not for both.
This paper takes a more comprehensive approach. Using a nationwide sample of 3000 Dutch e-shoppers we calculated the potential impacts of both types of e-commerce on personal and freight travel. The results indicated that personal travel in the Netherlands has only marginally decreased as a result of e-shopping, while freight transport has slightly increased. The outcomes showed a net mobility effect, as the reduction in personal travel was not fully compensated by the increase in freight transport. However, this mobility reduction was fully attributed to b2c e-commerce, as c2c e-commerce led to an increase in both personal travel and freight transport.