Transportation gas emissions with online retailing: a spatial model

We analyse the impact of online retailing on transportation gas emissions in a spatial duopoly with upstream suppliers. We consider: (1) pure offline competition with two physical retailers; and (2) online/offline competition, where an online retailer competes against an offline retailer. When the upstream suppliers are located in the city centre, transportation gas emissions are lower under online/offline competition. However, when the upstream suppliers are at the endpoints, online retailing might increase transportation gas emissions. This happens when: (1) in the online/offline competition case, the physical retailer does not locate at the endpoint; (2) the transportation costs of the suppliers’ commercial trucks are sufficiently larger than those of the consumers’ private cars; and (3) the competitiveness of the offline retailer is high enough.