EAE Business School published the study “Sustainability in current e-commerce. The impact of our purchase decision “, coordinated by May López, Development Director of the Companies for Sustainable Mobility platform, that warns of the unsustainability of current e-commerce.
The 79.3% of the Spanish population over 16 years of age is an e-commerce user, which means 28.6 million users who buy online. Figures that have increased with the pandemic, since with COVID-19 the type of product purchased online has changed, the number of purchases has increased and the number of new buyers has increased.
After record growth in 2020, in the first quarter of 2021 e-commerce continued to grow in business volume and maintained double-digit growth in number of transactions, increasing by 27.6% compared to the same period of the previous year.
But is current e-commerce sustainable? What does the population think? These questions are answered in the EAE Business School report “Sustainability in today’s e-commerce. The impact of our purchase decision”, Coordinated by May López, director of development of the Companies for Sustainable Mobility platform and professor at EAE Business School, which includes the results of two surveys and has been prepared with the collaboration of companies belonging to the Companies for Sustainable Mobility platform.
7 key facts
- 53.7% of online consumers consider that current e-commerce is not sustainable or doubt that it is. When asking the general public, only one in five respondents consider that current e-commerce is sustainable, while 79.7% of those surveyed doubt the sustainability of the current model.
- 7 out of 10 online shoppers admit to having bought products on impulse. This impact is even greater in the youngest, (9 out of 10).
- Campaigns such as Black Friday require managing delivery increases of up to 40% in a short space of time. This further increases the incidents during the delivery stages, worsening the quality of the service and increasing the inefficiency of the processes, which implies more failed deliveries, more waste, more returns and at the same time more traffic in cities, with the direct and indirect impact on air quality and traffic accidents.
- Spaniards return 50% of the purchases they make ‘online’ during Black Friday, compared to 30% of the periods without promotions and the 6% that the traditional sale supposes. These data place Spain as the fourth European country with the most returns.
- Express shipments (in less than 24 hours) have increased by over 10% each year. 15% of online buyers want to receive their order on the same day and 86% of all deliveries are requested at home. This means generating costs up to 3 or 4 times higher than those of selling products in establishments and 20% more CO2 emissions in the last mile than consolidating deliveries at points of convenience.
- Concentration in few marketplaces that do not contribute fiscally on the same terms as traditional commerce.
- The distribution is carried out mainly by vans that have an average of 13 years old and that represent 7% of the total CO2 emissions generated in Spain.
According May López, Director of Business Development for Sustainable Mobility and author of the study, e-commerce must adapt to various challenges. “It is necessary to create business models under the Spherical Economy approach based on the Circular Economy, in which we avoid the unnecessary consumption of products, from design to the final life of the product, considering the carbon footprint and the collaborative economy for elimination. from unnecessary consumption of natural resources. However, this must be done with a 360º approach, where the responsibility and impact of the organization on employees, clients, suppliers, society and the planet is taken into account. Where companies and organizations grow in an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable way, also benefiting society”, He warns.
Furthermore, according to the report, More than half of those surveyed (55.8%) have penalized with their purchase decision or are willing to do so, companies or brands that do not integrate sustainability actions in their products.
“Movements like sustainabledelivery.org They make it recognized that e-commerce is necessary and has come to stay, but we must guarantee that it is sustainable from an economic, environmental and social point of view, giving priority and recognizing those organizations that are promoting changes in this regard.”, Concludes López.
In this sense, three out of four respondents would value a badge that identifies the sustainability of the different online stores. In addition, 88% of those surveyed consider it relevant or very relevant that e-commerce offer more sustainable information and options, both for products / services and regarding their delivery.
