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Project
Addressing the 'home' in home delivery - A placemaking approach to optimise e-commerce activities and improve residential areas. (FWOTM1121)
Consumption practices have changed tremendously in the past
decade, not in the least in response to e-commerce. Accelerated by
the COVID-19 pandemic, online business models have become
important alternatives to stores. As a sector that relies on home
deliveries, e-commerce impacts the environments in which it
operates, including very locally. To reduce the negative
environmental impacts, research focuses on what logistics service
providers, retailers and consumers can do to optimise e-commerce
delivery and return activities. Yet the places in which they take place,
by nature residential, can significantly impact efficiency as well.
Knowledge lacks on how residential buildings and neighbourhoods
can accommodate the e-commerce volumes they generate, to
optimise the activities while enhancing the sustainability, quality and
attractiveness of these places altogether (i.e., the concept of
placemaking). The proposed research produces knowledge in
response to this gap, through a mixed methods design that includes
surveying consumers and experts in both spatial planning and goods
mobility. It allows to formulate a strategy consisting of appropriate
spatial interventions, to optimise e-commerce deliveries and returns
in residential areas, along the urban-rural continuum. Through
comparative environmental analysis, it also determines the most
important e-commerce supply chains and differentiates their
environmental impacts accordingly.
decade, not in the least in response to e-commerce. Accelerated by
the COVID-19 pandemic, online business models have become
important alternatives to stores. As a sector that relies on home
deliveries, e-commerce impacts the environments in which it
operates, including very locally. To reduce the negative
environmental impacts, research focuses on what logistics service
providers, retailers and consumers can do to optimise e-commerce
delivery and return activities. Yet the places in which they take place,
by nature residential, can significantly impact efficiency as well.
Knowledge lacks on how residential buildings and neighbourhoods
can accommodate the e-commerce volumes they generate, to
optimise the activities while enhancing the sustainability, quality and
attractiveness of these places altogether (i.e., the concept of
placemaking). The proposed research produces knowledge in
response to this gap, through a mixed methods design that includes
surveying consumers and experts in both spatial planning and goods
mobility. It allows to formulate a strategy consisting of appropriate
spatial interventions, to optimise e-commerce deliveries and returns
in residential areas, along the urban-rural continuum. Through
comparative environmental analysis, it also determines the most
important e-commerce supply chains and differentiates their
environmental impacts accordingly.
Date:1 Nov 2022 → Today
Keywords:E-commerce supply chains, Residential placemaking, Goods mobility efficiency
Disciplines:Urbanism and regional planning, Transport economics, Consumer behaviour, Logistics and supply chain management, Agricultural and natural resource economics, environmental and ecological economics