Online shopping cuts down on unnecessary travel

Friday, June 17, 2016 - 11:14 by Sarah Collinson

A new study has shown just how much of a positive impact the rise of safe shopping online is having on the amount of travelling that consumers have to do in order to get access to the products they need.

On average, people were able to avoid up to 6,000 miles of travel in the past 12 months thanks to the ability to order online rather than having to head to a bricks and mortar store every time an item is required.

This is according to analysts at Conlumino, who were commissioned to look into just how much of a difference is being made by the rise of e-commerce services.

With an annual saving of 6,000 miles in 2015, the researchers compared this with the 358 miles saved 10 years earlier in 2005, or the minimal 50 miles of travel that were avoided thanks to shopping online in 1995 at the dawn of the e-commerce age.

The report arrives at its conclusions over the amount of travelling that has been avoided by working out how far people would have to move in order to buy a particular item, as well as factoring in things like the movement involved in researching and browsing.

This of course means that because more Brits are buying items from overseas retailers today than in the past, the travel figure is inflated significantly. But the reality of the time and energy savings made possible by online shopping still holds true.

Report spokesperson, Guy Chiswick, said that the globalisation of retail has made the geographic location of consumers less relevant than ever. And this gives shoppers more choice, meaning they are less likely to remain loyal to a particular retailer if there are better options elsewhere, even from overseas outlets.