Going Green: Sustainability Challenges in E- Commerce Deliveries During the Pandemic

In the last decade or so, the growth of e-commerce in India and across the globe has been astounding. While this has triggered widespread euphoria about the convenience of online shopping and home delivery, the environmental impact of shopping through e- commerce portals has received insufficient academic attention. Mounds of packaging waste are generated due to the craze for online shopping and to meet the customer expectations of ultra-fast delivery of items ordered. The pressure on delivery ends up throttling logistics systems as batching of orders proceeding to neighboring locations is not possible due to the delivery commitments made by E-commerce players. The Covid-19 pandemic made online shopping inevitable because there were forced lockdowns in various parts of the world. Right from groceries, green groceries, apparels and electronic items, online shopping became the preferred panacea for pandemic ills. Online shopping festivals commence from midnight and extend over duration of 3-4 days. To amplify customer experience, E-commerce players offer value propositions like express delivery, same-day delivery etc leading to adverse environmental impacts in terms of the load on logistics (delivery) systems and the packaging waste that they end up generating. This research effort traces the adverse environmental impact of E- commerce shopping and highlights the actions that are needed to arrest this growing and disturbing trend that is threatening to destroy our ecology. While consumer education about the need to embrace sustainable practices is important, it remains to be seen whether this effort will lead to socially and environmentally responsible behavior on part of the consumers who shop online.