Online shopping has become increasingly popular Why do people shop online What are the environmental problems caused by this trend

As the access of the internet has been growing around the world, the trend of shopping has shifted, with the increase in popularity of online shopping. People tend to gravitate towards shopping online due to the ease of buying things, whie needing to make little to none social interactions, but this trend has raised multiple problems to the environment, which are discussed in the forthcoming paragraphs.

Shopping online has made life easier, with items arriving in the doorsteps without moving from our homes. Online shopping gives people the power to look through multiple catelogues of items—including food, clothing, accessories, electronics and many more—with a single touch, may it be wherever in the world. Moreover, people nowdays prefer not having to interact with strangers in-person, and online shopping helps them to get the items of their need, while maintaining a minimum contact with the sales representatives, which would not be a possibility whne shopping in-store. More than 90% of the introverts preferred shopping online, in a survey done in local schools, which perfectly exemplifies the reason for its growing popularity.

Despite many personal benefits, the growing trend of shopping online leads to multiple negative impacts for the environment. Online shopping goes hand in hand with the home delivery process, which involves multiple trips made by the delivery person in their vehicles, leading to overuse of non-renewable fuels, as well as pollution triggred by the vehicle’s emission. A recent study by Good Morning America said, Amazon is the leading contributor for pollution, mostly due to its one-day delivery service. Furthermore, the shopping platforms require large computer stations as well as multiple storage facilities to run their business, causing serious problems ranging from global warming by servers to deforrestation to build the storage facilities.

To sum up, online shopping has become a boon to the modern world as it has made shopping easier and accessible to everyone with minimal human interaction, but this growing trend has led to serious environmental issues like growing pollution, jump in the global temperature, and many more. To maintain a sustainable shopping trend, environmental friendly practices should be adopted by these businesses.