Individual Attitudes and Shopping Mode Characteristics Affecting the Use of E-Shopping and Related Travel

New telecommunication technologies and services have caused important challenges on travel behaviour and trip characteristics. Existing literature studies show many different outcomes regarding the effects of the new technologies on the participation of people to their personal activities and related travel; specifically, e-shopping may produce the reduction of shopping trips (substitution effect), but also an increase of trips thanks to the reuse of the travel time saved for other activities and trips (complementarity’s effect). The focus of this study is to analyse the aspects mostly affecting consumer choices of purchasing goods by web or in-store, with the aim of understanding how to operate so that e-shopping can positively modify consumers’ travel behaviour. Our research findings show that individual social and economic factors, consumer attitudes, and shopping mode characteristics influence the usage of online shopping. An experimental survey addressed to a sample of Italian consumers is used in the study.