Advantages of Online Shopping

In our new emerging society today with the amazing access to online shopping instead of traveling to the store, which could take precious time away from us. As we can see the delivery trucks passing by our neighborhoods, more and more boxes pile up from the deliveries and the constant truck drivers gives us the thought that online shopping could not possibly be environmentally friendly. However, recent studies show online shopping isn’t as harmful as our society believes. From the statistics shown online shopping has led to cheaper sales compared to classic shopping, reduced emissions of dangerous chlorofluorocarbons into our atmosphere, and a more eco-friendly way of shopping.

Unlike the traditional shopping of going out to, online shopping is the purchasing of goods through the internet from another person selling to someone buying. Past surveys from Safe Home Products show that, "Eighty-nine percent of Consumers prefer online shopping to store shopping," (Safe Home Products). One of the largest known online shopping companies is “Amazon making over 274 million dollars of net income, controlling 65% of all the new online books sold!” (“Investopedia”). But from these statistics people believe their economic development and environmentally friendly services do not correlate at all. Most online shopping franchises such as Amazon are completely dominating smaller establishments trying to sell the same product but are completely outmatched by Amazon’s reliability. Especially, "Big bookstores, the ones that are most affected by Amazon’s dominance. Like Borders which is long gone" (Leo Mirani "Kill idea of Amazon killing independent bookstores). Most of the waste is from the cardboard boxes that items are shipped in and most end up in landfills because its the main way to return online products. This makes double the amount of packing to send and package products.

With online shopping it is possible to save more money instead of shopping in stores that takes up more time and effort to get something, which benefits the employees of online markets and the customers. Companies like Amazon, make their income by making products cheaper for us to buy but keeping their profits low. A former employee from Amazon stated that, Amazon gets rewarded for not making money (Business insider). From most online shopping services, money is saved from ordering online instead of physically going to the store to buy products for the customers. A customer of Amazon gave feedback saying,“ [I] had 20% more saving when ordering online than shopping elsewhere,” (Debt Roundup). Through online marketing the future of innovation and integration into major economic growth is extremely possible.

Less dangerous chlorofluorocarbons are released into our atmosphere with minimal usage of trucks and other shipping vehicles from online companies like Amazon, Ebay, Etc. From calculations less dangerous chemicals are emitted with one deliverer. Many fuel efficient truck on average, “e-commerce uses about 30% less energy than traditional retail, according to studies,” (Los Angeles Times). How much emission is burnt from a single truck driver compared to multiple customers driving somewhere for their products? Recent studies show there is Less CO2 emission in ecommerce by Amazon delivery trucks by 32% using minimal supply of gasoline compared to numerous customers (Los Angeles Times). Online shopping can slow the decay of global warming by reducing the amount of chemicals released in the atmosphere that could damage civilization.

Online shopping is the future of buying goods and one of the greenest ways to shop in our current society. Especially with the evolution of technology, purchasing online to download is the main reason for eco-friendly shopping. With downloading online, no packaging is needed to be prepared for the store. On websites that sell videos and books like E-Books they are environmentally friendly when, “They displace the purchase of 22.5 physical books,” (Are E-Readers Greener than Books?) Online shopping is very easy and convenient than moving to a shop. According to PwC's annual consumer survey, “Over 27% of U.S. population order online instead of physically moving,” (Business News Daily). Through online shopping, downloading is safer on the environment than going buying something out of a store.

Ultimately, without an effective plan to deal with the environmental and economic disruption faced from the excessive use of physical shopping the majority of land will be wasted on shopping that could lead to destruction of land. However as technology advance and online shopping becomes more popular less of an impact on our environment. Without the influence of online shopping, what will our future generations be left with? A polluted megalopolis of huge buildings and large amounts of land used for shops, when all it could be fixed with online shopping.