In recent years, without a shadow of doubt, shopping on the internet has become remarkably popular among customers, which indeed has noticeable environmental impacts, together with a range of implications for its job market.
From the environmental aspect, shopping online can be more wasteful when compared to traditional shopping and lead to pollution. To illustrate this, spacious stores and malls, which necessitate excessive packaging and as result as delivery pollution in the long run. Additionally, when businesses are transformed into digital, it is no longer needed for stores and become less physical shops, less money spending on energy. E-commerce, however, can cause overspending and even sometimes creates the illusion of artificial wants, leading to more intensive consumption patterns, which perhaps demand more materials and environmental resources.
Apart from that, digital shopping in the era of social media has revolutionised retailing job opportunities. For example, neither sales assistants nor customer service representatives are required to perform in a physical manner. Nevertheless, they are more likely to respond via message based communication platforms over social media or the internet in general. Not only are the previously mentioned jobs impacted by online purchasing, but those who work in shipping or technology are deemed to have an increasing demand on delivery, packaging service or AI creating video to attract customers, especially during occasions of discounts and vacation.
In conclusion, the fact that shopping online has some environmental impacts is undeniable, which can be either positive or negative. Moreover, the job market of retailing and shopping has been transformed to accept different jobs and become less dependent on traditional positions.