Abstract:
Structural equation modeling techniques were used to explore the trade-offs that people make when teleshopping from home. Early in the development and growth of online shopping, many assumed that it would become a direct substitute for traditional retail (out-of-home) shopping and thereby reduce shopping trips and vehicle miles traveled. A growing body of research on the interplay between the use of information and communications technologies suggests that people shop and travel for a multitude of reasons that depend on the interplay between lifestyle, availability and convenience of shopping opportunities and the demands of other activities during the day. Using the San Francisco Bay Area Travel Survey 2000 from California, this paper performs an activities analysis to investigate these relationships. Time use variables predict the amount of time each individual spends during the day on work, maintenance, discretionary, and shopping activities both inside and outside the home. These activities are used to predict the amount of shopping travel each person undertook. Results suggest that people substitute home teleshopping time for shopping travel time and that teleshoppers take fewer shopping trips and travel shorter total distances for shopping purposes. Variables constructed to represent the degree to which people are “time-starved” from the demands of their work and maintenance activities revealed that female heads of households tend to teleshop more, make more shopping trips and shopping trip chains, do more out-of-home shopping, and shop travel for longer periods than the rest of the survey population.
