Energy implications of online book retailing in the United States and Japan

The advent of the Internet and e-commerce has brought a new way of marketing and selling many products, including books. The system-wide impacts of this shift in retail methods on cost, energy, and the environment are still unclear. While reductions in inventories and returns provide significant savings, some of the major concerns of e-commerce business models are the energy and packaging materials used by the logistics networks for product fulfillment and delivery. In this paper, we analyze the different logistics networks and assess the energy and cost impacts of different delivery systems in the United States and Japan. In Japan, the results suggest a crossover in energy use according to population density. In the United States, the crossover also exists, based on delivery method and distance to local bookstores. In neither case, however, are the potential spillover energy benefits from e-commerce-based methods considered. The results show notable differences for the two distribution methods, and suggest areas where further energy improvements may be possible.