Travel modes in grocery shopping

Abstract

Purpose Although the movement of goods by consumers represents a large proportion of the economic and environmental impact of the distribution chain, this topic has been insufficiently explored in the retailing literature. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of shopping travel-mode choice in the context of grocery shopping. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents findings from a Swedish national survey of 1,694 respondents that included questions regarding travel-mode choices and consumer characteristics, mobility conditions, shopping behaviours and environmental interests and engagements. Findings This paper shows how travel modes interrelate and how various consumer characteristics, shopping behaviours, mobility conditions and environmental interests and engagements relate to and affect travel-mode choice in grocery shopping. General travel patterns and distance to store are shown to be the most important factors in explaining the mode of transport for grocery shopping. Originality/value This paper presents data from a national representative survey and provides novel analyses of travel-mode choices in grocery shopping and the interrelationships among those choices, in addition to the interrelationship between travel-mode choice and the use of home delivery. This paper contributes to a further understanding of consumer mobility in the context of grocery shopping.

Framework of Last Mile Logistics Research: A Systematic Review of the Literature

“…Surveys are rather rare in last mile logistics research, with only 13 articles using this methodology. The surveys focus mainly on consumers, i.e., consumer behavior [2,57,162,163], customer satisfaction [158], and consumer experience [174].…”

“…Environmental performance refers to articles measuring the environmental impacts of retail channels [14], solutions for goods reception [152], last mile logistics innovations [5], and urban freight traffic [154]. Customer-focused performance includes articles measuring the performance of last mile logistics from the perspective of its customers, particularly customer satisfaction [158], service quality [157], customer requirements [2], customer experience, [162], and travel modes of consumers, [163]. Economic performance measures the performance of last mile logistics in terms of costs, [166], and profitability [168].…”

“…Moreover, the review shows that last mile logistics include all types of channels and is not limited to a single channel. Some authors consider last mile logistics as relevant solely in an e-commerce context [81,106,151,157,162], while others explicitly focus on bricks-and-mortar retail [15,125,163,164]. Literature focusing on bricks-and-mortar retail emphasizes the role of consumer shopping trips, i.e., consumers conducting a part of last mile logistics by themselves.…”

“…In the literature, the scope of last mile logistics is often defined by a specific type of delivery. This review finds that some authors focus solely on deliveries of parcels, while others address other types of deliveries, such as groceries [79,125,130,151,163] and spare parts [11,73]. To achieve a more unified and comprehensive view, there is a need to embrace all types of deliveries in last mile logistics, both forward and reverse flow [71,114,141].…”

How Does Consumers’ Omnichannel Shopping Behaviour Translate into Travel and Transport Impacts? Case-Study of a Footwear Retailer in Belgium

“…Hence, several researchers stressed the need to obtain better knowledge and thorough understanding of consumers' behavioural patterns and characteristics [7,11,12]. What is more, understanding these patterns allows to gain insight in the transport flows related to shopping, that induce significant environmental consequences [13][14][15][16], both locally (e.g., air pollution, congestion, noise) and globally (e.g., climate change emissions) [17]. Accordingly, environmental assessments of transport that compare the impacts of online and offline shopping do not account for the complexities created by consumers' omnichannel shopping behaviour.…”