While much of the interest around online shopping centres around convenience, we should take a moment to spare a thought for the environmental impact.

As shoppers and businesses are becoming more environmentally considerate, there is another reason to offer online shopping as an option, or even an alternative to the traditional retail store – its level of environmental friendliness.

Construction
The construction, and fit out of a store require a huge amount of energy and sometimes significant pollution. Each building block of the store needs to be sourced from somewhere. Transportation of materials to the store also contributes negatively to the environment.

Ongoing Use
The ongoing use of a physical store requires a significant amount of energy to run – much, much more than your run of the mill online store. Lighting also needs to be left on at night in many cases, to deter theft of product.

Customer Use
Customers visiting your store, unless they walk or ride a bike, are going to contribute to environmental pollution by having to drive to your store. The amount of natural resources required to get a customer from their home to your store must be rather significant.

With this in mind, when you’re thinking about your business options, or whether to open a store in the physical world or online, you should now spare a thought for the environmental impact.