Source: adapted from Visser, J. and T. Nemoto (2002) “E-commerce and the Consequences for Freight Transport” in E. Taniguchi and R.G. Thompson (eds) Innovations in Freight Transport, Southampton: WIT Press.
Up to the late 1990s, urban retail goods movements, particularly those concerning large retail stores, took place in a conventional manner where goods were brought to store outlets and consumers traveled to the stores to purchase them and bring the goods home on their own account. The emergence of online purchases added a new dimension to urban retail goods movements with the delivery of parcels directly to the consumer’s home.