Green E-Commerce

At present, the e-commerce sector is characterised by rapidly increasing volumes of parcel deliveries, causing congestion, noise and air pollution in public spaces. The number of CEPs is also increasing due to more partial deliveries, multiple delivery attempts and a high number of returns. According to the "eCommerce Study Austria", the return rate for the year 2020 will be over 40 percent. Increased freight transport on the last mile will lead to more congestion, noise and emissions. On the demand side, online shops often offer no or only very limited climate-friendly delivery options, which contradicts the growing sustainability awareness of many end customers. The design, development and evaluation of technological, behavioural and logistical interventions will address these gaps. The Green eCommerce project aims to enable online customers to make their deliveries more sustainable and to increase their awareness of sustainable goods transport through technological (Al-based chatbot, 3D fitting tool), behavioural (playful reward system, persuasive design patterns) and logistical (choice of e-transport) innovations. In particular, the aim is to minimise returns and multiple home delivery attempts, and to encourage bulk ordering and direct delivery of regional products. The extension of existing online shops with these innovative and modular components represents a novelty in the sense that traffic avoidance, traffic optimisation and modal shift can be achieved through the behaviour of online customers. Compared to current measures in freight logistics (e.g. route optimisation, electrification of the fleet, construction of hubs), this persuasive approach aimed at the end consumer has hardly been researched. This package of measures is currently being implemented in three online shops and evaluated in terms of acceptance, usability and environmental impact.