Trends of Environmentally Sustainable Solutions of Urban Last-Mile Deliveries on the E-Commerce Market—A Literature Review

Abstract

The growth of e-commerce has increased urban freight transport, bringing negative externalities of emissions, pollution, noise, congestion, and habitat loss. There is a visible effort to make the urban last-mile (LM) deliveries more sustainable, mainly in the environmental aspects; however, the related literature lacks a synthesis of the up-to-date research trends and available solutions. This paper reviews relevant literature following SRL methodology in terms of topics related to green LM deliveries on the e-commerce market in urban areas, and identifies trends and the research gaps in this field. In addition, current research topics and existing solutions within the e-commerce market, which increase its environmental sustainability are presented. The findings provide an accurate and comprehensive synthesis of research in green LM e-commerce deliveries in cities, identify current and emerging interests of researchers worldwide, and discover areas requiring further studies. The topics of ICT and smart solutions, customer behavior, and performance assessment certainly seem to be underestimated in the current research. In practical terms, it is a source of knowledge and guidelines on the current developments regarding the existing solution for the LM e-commerce deliveries in the urban area, which might help local governments, freight operators, and other stakeholders of last-mile logistics to improve their sustainability.

Influencing factors toward e-shoppers' adoption of green last-mile delivery

“…E-tailers and parcel couriers compete to reach customers' doorsteps through adoption of semi-occupied vehicles and inefficient packaging (e.g. product and delivery box volume ratio) (Mucowska, 2021;Verdon, 2019). At the same time, e-tailers or parcels provide e-shoppers IJRDM 51,2 only limited delivery choices between fast-paced last-mile delivery and optimized green lastmile delivery, based only on economic factors such as associated delivery time and cost (Ignat and Chankov, 2020).…”

Exploring the factors that drive consumers to use contactless delivery services in the context of the continued COVID-19 pandemic

“…It is worth noting that the last-mile distribution and the end of the supply chain are the most carbon-intensive and least energy-efficient links, and they are the main factors of carbon emissions in the whole logistics and distribution chain ( Gee et al, 2020 ; Mucowska, 2021 ; Siragusa et al, 2022 ). However, on a global scale, the COVID19 pandemic has further driven the rapid growth in demand for last-mile delivery, and the issue of carbon emissions caused by last-mile delivery is a growing concern ( Mucowska, 2021 ). Therefore, with the support of digital technology, promoting the use of contactless delivery services (e.g., unmanned delivery stations, new energy automated delivery vehicles, delivery robots, smart lockers and self-service cabinets, etc.)…”

Pemerintahan Berbasis Elektronik (E-Government) dan Pembangunan Berkelanjutan: Reviu Literatur Sistematis

“…Berbagai studi telah membahas mengenai topik e-government dan pembangunan berkelanjutan dengan metode reviu literatur seperti pengembangan integrasi e-government (Othman & Razali, 2018), peran e-government dalam pengadaan publik (Procurement) (Adjei-Bamfo et al, 2019), serta yang menyoroti pasar e-commerce (Kiba-Janiak et al, 2021;Mucowska, 2021). Namun dari berbagai studi tersebut masih sedikit ditemukan reviu literatur sistematis dalam kajian e-government dan pembangunan berkelanjutan.…”