Central and Eastern European e|Dem and e|Gov Days 2020

Shopping via the internet is booming. High growth figures can still be expected in the future. More and more customers buy their goods online; the goods are then delivered to their home. Online customers especially love convenience. On the Internet, the large assortment is at a glance, the selection is independent of time and place, furthermore many products are cheaper. In this way, the customer can save money, save time and avoid ways to the city center. But is online shopping also climate-friendly? Climate-conscious behavior is an aspect that is currently being discussed a lot. The rapidly growing e-commerce is publicly criticized in many places for not being sustainable. Reference is made in particular to increase packaging waste, high return rates (and presumably destruction of returned goods) as well as longer distances that have to be covered for items in e-commerce on the way to the customer. Studies come to very different assessments of the environmental impact of ecommerce compared to traditional retail. This paper focuses on traffic-related environmental impacts when evaluating e-commerce. 1. Booming E-Commerce In 2018, retail sales in Germany amounted to a total of approximately 525 billion euros. Compared to the previous year, retail sales thus grew by a total of 2.3%. Shopping via the internet accounted for 53.3 billion euros (online trade with (new) goods B2C in Germany): Compared to the previous year, online trade thus grew by 9.1%. Online trade thus remains the growth engine in the retail sector. However, traditional retail still accounts for the bulk of total sales (approx. 89%). Across all sectors, the online share of retail sales in Germany is approx. 11%. [1] There are two reasons for the high growth rates in online trading. Firstly, more and more consumers in Germany are buying via the internet. The number of online shoppers in Germany grew by five percentage points between 2016 and 2018, from 61% to 66%. Although their online affinity is still below average, the number of online shoppers among the 60+ generation has recently risen above average. More and more older people are discovering online shopping. This group of people is very interesting for online retailers, because they have a high purchasing power (on average). Secondly, the per capita expenditure of online shoppers is rising. The customers in Germany spent around 1,360 euros per person on their online purchases in 2018. [2] The product groups clothing, electronic goods/telecommunications as well as computers/ accessories/games/software traditionally generate the highest online sales (see table 1). Online sales of fashion & accessories reached a sales volume of 13.2 billion euros in 2018. This corresponds to a 24.9% share of total online trade (amounting to 53.3 billion euros in 2018). Online sales of consumer electronics and electrical appliances (CE/Electro) reached a trade volume of 13.0 billion euros in 1 Hochschule für öffentliche Verwaltung und Finanzen Ludwigsburg, Reuteallee 36, D-71634 Ludwigsburg 34 CEE e|Dem and e|Gov Days 202