Assessing the Impacts of COVID-19 on Online-Shopping Behavior, the Resulting Delivery and Shipping Behavior of Private Households, and Freight Transportation: An Empirical Study of Germany

Online shopping has gained popularity in many countries over the past two decades. As a result, the question of whether it reduces the overall transportation volume from fewer personal shopping trips or increases it because of more freight transportation, especially in the courier, express, and parcel segment, is a hot topic in transportation research. Yet few studies have applied a holistic approach to distinguishing online-shopping behavior with regard to different product categories, the distances traveled to purchase different products on physical shopping trips, the means of transportation used on these trips, and the freight transportation caused by online shopping. In addition, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020 led to a dramatic increase in online shopping in many countries, with people trying to avoid physical shopping trips for health reasons. Against this background, this article attempts to clarify the net effects of online shopping on transportation volume both before and during the pandemic. For this purpose, two online surveys were conducted to capture online-shopping behavior and its effects on transportation before (2018) and during the pandemic (2021). The investigation area was Germany. The analysis showed that the pandemic generated more online shopping and more personal shopping trips. However, the overall mileage resulting from personal shopping trips, freight transportation, and pick-up and drop-off trips caused by online shopping remained relatively constant, as people traveled shorter distances during the pandemic.