Home-Based Teleshoppers and Shopping Travel: Do Teleshoppers Travel Less?

Abstract

Some have assumed that teleshopping will become a functional substitute for traditional retail shopping and thereby reduce physical shopping trips and vehicle miles traveled. More recent studies have painted a far more complex picture, in which a combination of lifestyle, shopping opportunities, and the costs of travel all play a role in a person's choice of shopping modes. In this study, data from an activity-diary survey collected by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, California, were analyzed to gain insights into the degree to which teleshopping substitutes for traditional out-of-home shopping trips, person miles traveled for shopping, and shopping-trip chains. A two-step linear regression model was used to estimate the effects of home-based teleshopping. Results indicate that teleshopping households engage in more shopping trips and chain more of their shopping trips. It is hypothesized that teleshopping has a complementary effect on out-of-home shopping and leads to more shopping trip making and that the time for these additional trips and home teleshopping activities is enabled through efficiencies gained from increased trip chaining. Time saved through increased trip chaining and teleshopping may provide the additional time needed to shop more—both from within the home and outside the home.

Shopping online and/or in-store? A structural equation model of the relationships between e-shopping and in-store shopping

“…Ferrell (2004) found that teleshoppers chain their shopping trips more often than non-teleshoppers, although no such effect was found in his second study (Ferrell, 2005). He remarks that both teleshopping and trip chaining could be used as 'travel-efficiency tools'.…”

“…Ferrell (2004Ferrell ( , 2005 has analysed activity diaries using multivariate analysis techniques to investigate the relationship between teleshopping (i.e.,…”

“…The few empirical studies that hitherto have been carried out, either do not distinguish between online shopping and other types of home shopping (e.g., buying via catalogue, telephone, or television), or do not separate online buying from online searching (e.g., Ferrell, 2004;Casas et al, 2001). Also, they are relatively limited because relevant factors such as Internet behaviour or shopping attitudes are often not taken into account, and because multivariate analysis techniques are not always applied.…”

The interactions between online shopping and personal activity travel behavior: an analysis with a GPS-based activity travel diary

“…The latter, weekend shopping, is defined as the percentage of in-store shopping activities conducted at weekends out of all in-store shopping activities. Other dimensions of activity travel behavior, such as leisure activity frequency and shopping trip chaining, were considered as in previous literature, to allow the comparison of our results with those of previous studies (Ferrell 2004;Farag et al 2007). Leisure activity frequency is the number of leisure activities conducted during the survey week.…”

The interaction between ICT and human activity-travel behavior

“…For instance, Ferrell (2004) examined the impact of teleshopping on out-ofhome shopping trips and travel distance. The results suggested that home shopping tends to increase shopping trips and the number of chained shopping trips with a reduction in the total travel distance.…”