Online shopping is increasing dramatically. How could this trend affect our environment and the kinds of jobs required?

Sample 1:

Thanks to the Internet, online shopping has been experiencing a boom in business. In this essay, the environmental and employment effects of this trend will be examined.

Of course, the growth of e-shopping has contributed remarkably to reducing carbon footprint because of the fact that it eliminates car trips that shoppers make to buy goods at shopping malls and showrooms. However, the picture does not look rosy as online shopping has actually caused overpackaging and the higher volume of transportation, making the environmental pollution worse. Firstly, most shoppers often choose to receive home-delivered products as soon as possible, and rush delivery means more delivery trucks to meet the delivery deadline. Second, many brands and e-shopping platforms make it possible and easier to return unwanted items without cost while the consequences to the environment of returning items is that they require repackaging and double the transportation.

In terms of employment impact of ecommerce, the retail industry has been reshaped in both positive and negative ways. On the one hand, when online shopping is more popular, it reduces the number of brick-and-mortar stores which create thousands of retail jobs. On the other hand, this trend offers opportunities for sale workers who are willing to alter their skill sets to adapt to work online. Also, the rise of shopping online boosts the development of the manufacturing industry and distribution process, creating more jobs. Besides, the increase of ecommerce companies will spur employment needs for workers involved in digital marketing, website design or system maintenance.

In conclusion, online shopping is on the rise, and this trend brings both advantages and disadvantages to the environment and employment.

Sample 2:

In recent years, online shopping has gained more and more popularity all over the world. This tendency has several impacts on the environment and on various jobs related to electronic commerce.

The rise of online shopping is both beneficial and harmful to the environment to some extent. One obvious benefit of this trend is that it can help reduce the number of private vehicles travelling to brick-and-mortar stores since orders of customers from different locations can be grouped and delivered to homes at once. This will eventually lessen a great deal of exhaust fumes which are one of the causes of air pollution. However, if people are encouraged to shop online more, more plastic wastes will be released to the environment, especially water bodies such as rivers and oceans. This, as a consequence, will do harm to the natural habitats of numerous marine species and worsen the problem of environmental pollution.

The growth of e-shopping has also brought both negative and positive impacts on people’s employment. On the one hand, this trend has created a variety of work opportunities for people, especially for those who major in information technology. To maintain an e-store, there will be a need for many kinds of jobs such as database administrators, web designers, delivery drivers, etc. On the other hand, when e-shopping is becoming more and more popular, an influx of people working at traditional retail stores might lose their jobs and face unemployment. This will place a huge burden on the government to create alternative jobs for these individuals, which might take a long time and require a large amount of budget.

In conclusion, online shopping impacts the environment and the labour market in both positive and negative ways.

Sample 3:

The ubiquity of online shopping has brought with it concerns about the environment and an evolving job market. In my opinion, online shopping increases fossil fuel emissions and requires a massive, unskilled workforce for both delivery and production.

Online shopping uses fossil fuels in the making and transportation of goods. In order to manufacture a given product, such as a television, book, or bag of muesli, there is an environmental cost from sourcing and transporting all the elements, powering the factory that assembles it, and creating the plastic packaging, which is also a petroleum byproduct. In the case of a large company like Amazon, the product must be driven or flown to various centres around the country in order to be available for next day delivery. From the storage warehouse, it is then driven or flown to the consumer who ordered it, further burning fossil fuels. The net impact on the environment is self-evidently massive and hastens climate change.

Moreover, online shopping is such a sprawling business that it manipulates the labour market. First of all, there are the workers directly involved. Deliverymen must pack, unpack and ship products while the whole operation also requires a variety of managers, foremen, and office workers. These workers are notoriously underpaid and exploited when working for the largest online retailers, who also streamline the means of production in order to offer the lowest prices. Instead of sourcing from local businesses, which would be slightly more expensive, they opt for large factories largely based in China that can cheaply and quickly produce standardised products. This requires an army of factory workers, working at low wages in unsafe conditions.

In conclusion, online shopping contributes greatly to climate change and has created deep fissures in the job market. Governments should regulate these companies before their rampant profit-driven efficiency has unforeseen social and political implications.

Sample 4:

Online shopping has become more popular than ever before in recent years. This trend may have positive impacts on the environment and employment patterns in the short run, but it may do more harm than good in the long run.

In terms of the environment, the popularity of online shopping can help reduce the number of car journeys to physical stores and the amount of associated greenhouse emissions. A delivery truck, for example, is able to carry large amounts of goods, which, if carried by private cars, would require hundreds of trips, emitting huge amounts of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. In the long term, however, the convenience of shopping on the Internet might encourage people to buy more, and this will increase the number of delivery vehicles on the road, releasing more exhaust fumes and heat-trapping gases. In addition, if people consume more, there will be more waste ending up in landfills, which are one of the largest sources of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Regarding the effects on the types of jobs in the labour market, the growing popularity of online shopping has created various new employment opportunities, such as online grocery personal shoppers, delivery drivers and web designers. Looking into the future, however, the growth of this kind of shopping might lead to the bankruptcy of many traditional retailers, forcing thousands of people to face unemployment. The number of jobless people might outnumber the number of job openings created by the rapid development of online shopping, resulting in a higher level of unemployment.

In conclusion, the growth of online shopping might be beneficial for the environment and the labour market in the short run; however, in the long term, the benefits might be overshadowed by the negative consequences.

Sample 5:

As our world becomes more globalized, online shopping is becoming ever prevalent, leading to new questions surrounding the environment and the nature of work. I believe that this will have a positive effect on both, since it lowers the need for physical space and corporate hierarchy.

Firstly, it could be posited that the advance of online shopping as a provider of consumer goods would reduce urban planning of malls and shopping centers, leading to overall less pollution. Malls and shopping centres consume enormous amounts of electricity that in many cases are supplied by fossil fuels, contributing to higher carbon emissions levels. It is theorized by environmentalists that these kinds of projects would see a sharp decrease, thus decreasing carbon emissions, as a result of online shopping. Many online shops today, for example, have very few physical shops; instead, they only store their products in small storage spaces.

Furthermore, the trend towards online shopping can allow more individual people to become their own boss instead of having to work for other people. With the advent of the internet, it is now easier than ever before to simply source one’s product from a developing country and resell it in a developed country, making profit in the process. This in turn gives the average person more choice with regards to work, for they no longer have to depend on other companies to pay them. The millions of buyers and sellers on websites such as Amazon and Ebay, for example, provide a testament to the positive effects of online commerce on entrepreneurship.

Overall, I argue that though there are both positives and negatives from the switch from traditional to online shopping, it is on the whole better for the environment and the average worker.

Sample 6:

The growth in the popularity of online shopping has been responsible for numerous critical changes in human impacts on the environment as well as the dynamics in occupational structure around the globe. Specifically on its impact, this trend can exert an adverse effect on mother nature and alter the job market greatly, with detailed explanation presented in the following.

The dire consequence of online shopping on the environment lies in its tendency to over-package products. Compared to conventional shopping, this modern form of shopping normally uses more materials in packaging to ensure the quality of the ordered products during the transportation from manufacturers to consumers, preventing any potential damage to the merchandise that would harm the seller’s reputation. This excessive packaging, although highly secures the delivery of products, is one of the main culprits behind the accumulation of plastics in landfills as hardly ever are the plastics and paper used in wrapping products reused or recycled. Such one-time use of materials, especially of the non-biodegradable ones like plastics, quickly builds up landfill sites and further aggravates the existing environmental problems with garbage.

Alternatively, one of the influences that this phenomenon could have on the future job market is advancing the shift in preferences to technology jobs. As online shopping is getting increasingly prevalent, the demand for IT jobs, which is crucial to the development of this form of shopping, becomes steeper. For example, Amazon reportedly had created thousands of career opportunities for developers who have improved the user interface design of the website and the algorithm that operates it. Developers are now highly sought by not only major companies specializing in e-commerce but also conventional stores that start to implement online shopping. This ubiquitous use and transition to online shopping motivates the employment market to redistribute its current structure and place more emphasis on technology-related jobs to satisfy the ongoing hunt for talents.

In conclusion, online shopping can have detrimental effects on the environment due to its excessive packaging and occupational distribution towards technology careers could emerge as e-commerce becomes universal.

Sample 7:

One of the current phenomena is online shopping is on the rise. This tendency actually benefits the environment and leads up to changes in various jobs related to this mode of shopping.

As far as environmental issues are concerned, this trend might be said to harm the environment since an increase in the number of online shoppers is associated with a rise in the amount of product consumption, including many things purchased even before people can figure out what these items should be used for. It appears, therefore, to be a waste of resources.

The truth is internet shopping entails tons of benefits, one of which is saving time. In this modern society where time is gold, saving time is so significant. Time saved could be spent on working and boosting productivity, generating more and more resources. That is not to mention the merit of rescuing thousands of trees which may be cut down to make paper.

In terms of jobs in this new era, many occupations related to computers and internet use as well as online sales, be it for professional or non-professional purposes, have gained popularity. These range from IT engineers and web designers through advertisers and market researchers to cleaners and deliverers. In particular, those who work in delivery have now felt luckier because of the change from eating out to staying home or at the workplace and ordering a meal online.

Summarizing, when it comes to shopping on the internet, the impact is mainly positive, and it leads to numerous changes in the labor market, including the traditional job of deliverers. It is hard to predict what will be the next groundbreaking transformation in the foreseeable future, but online shopping still shocks many people in developing countries because of the convenience in paying methods.

Sample 8:

With the proliferation of the internet and smart phones, the trend of online shopping is growing rapidly. This positively impacts on the environment as it reduces the need of a shop which has a huge ecological footprint. This impacts society in a favourable way by reducing the cost of goods and in an adverse way by reducing employment.

Traditionally, the products are sold in a physical shop that requires lighting, air conditioning, and infrastructure. All these result in environmental damage as these require a lot of electricity and raw materials that lead to emission of green house gases (GHG). Online shops, on the other hand, merely transport goods from a large regional warehouse whose ecological footprint, a measure of GHG emissions, is lower than local shops. Thus, online shops contribute to environmental preservation.

Online shops have better economies of scale and thus offer prices which are lower than local shops. This reduces the financial burden on pockets of the citizens and enables them to spend more on education, culture, and entertainment. These activities promote social stability and harmony. However, they often lead to lower employment in society. Various studies have proved that online shops employ fewer people, and they result in shutting down of local businesses. For example, Amazon and Flipkart offer heavy discounts on various products that local stores cannot provide. This shifts consumer choice to these websites, and this results in the loss of local jobs.

In conclusion, online shopping impacts a society and the environment in various positive and negative ways. While it reduces employment opportunities for some, it reduces the cost of goods for a large majority of people. It also reduces the impact of business on the environment. This builds environmental sustainability, social stability and economic prosperity in a region.

Sample 9:

Recently, online shopping has become a hot trend. Purchasing and selling online has become popular and the services are increasing manifold. eBay and Amazon offer a wide variety of products, which we can avail from the comfort of our home. Major disadvantages included in window shopping are time-consuming, traveling to faraway shops, parking vehicles at a time of a rush hour, etc. Online shopping has reduced these inconveniences for consumers.

While shopping online or browsing the internet, people come across a wide range of products to choose from. They are able to compare the prices and features of their choices on different websites. This helps them to make a well-thought-out decision. Flipkart and Jabong are two famous online shops in India. They not only provide the product description and price information but also allow comparison of products of the same category, providing customers reviews and opinions and ratings. The ordered items can be altered or canceled as per the customers’ needs. You can return or exchange the items you bought if you are not satisfied with the quality.

Shopping is considered a social experience. Certain people enjoy shopping and lingering about in the markets at leisure. Popular websites often sell things at a cheaper rate than local stores, offering attractive discount rates. This is also another reason why online shops are being preferred recently.

Online shopping is much more beneficial for customers in comparison to in-store purchasing. Since it is hassle-free, online shopping is convenient. Thus, shopping over the internet is definitely a positive trend, and will grow more popular over the years.

Sample 10:

The world in which we live has seen significant changes due to the advent of modern technologies such as the internet. Shopping is not an exception. These days, thanks to the development of the internet, online shopping has dramatically flourished. This essay seeks to investigate the effects of this trend on the environment and society.

While the development of internet shopping has a cascade of effects on the environment, some of them are more significant. Firstly, the number of conventional shops has dropped due to the lack of their necessity; hence, the space needed for their construction remained undeveloped. Moreover, less traveling is needed by people in order to purchase a merchandise.

Consequently, less emission is produced because of the fewer number of vehicles on the streets; therefore, the air is less polluted. As a tangible example, studies show that in the United States alone, the tendency toward online shopping has prevented 10 million cars from leaving garages during the first three months of 2017. One can only imagine how much pollution has been averted.

Society has also been affected by this trend. First and foremost, indolence is spread. People are less active because of online shopping. The only physical activity needed is to press a button on the computer. Secondly, local commerce is negatively suffering. People prefer to buy online due to its convenience; therefore, fewer patrons visit local shops to buy products; hence, local businesses are disappearing. For example, statistics show that after the development of online shopping, the survival rate of small businesses has dropped from 61 percent to 23 percent.

To summarize, online shopping has a plethora of effects on both our environment and our society from changing the look of surroundings and cleaning the air to rendering people lazier and jeopardizing small businesses.

Sample 11:

Despite the fact that we know what time it is on the clock, what the weather is like outside or there is a pandemic, we can conveniently buy the things we need in online stores. Very few people feel the need to take risks in stores. It cannot be denied that online shopping has become more popular and less tedious than in-store shopping. This trend has positive and negative sides, which are discussed in the following essay.

To inaugurate with, the fact that online shopping brings more benefits than shopping in a store. Firstly, it saves time for both buyers and sellers, as buyers don’t have to travel, and sellers don’t have to show their products one by one to each consumer. Furthermore, they can get perfect knock-on prices and can easily compare products before pressing the buy button, which can lead to significant cost benefits for the buyers. In this manner, people can make smarter decisions after evaluating and considering size, price and models. Also, it allows them to easily shop from any part of the world. As a result, the number of job opportunities in the future will increase as demand grows.

On the other hand, online shopping does not allow you to touch or see the product, which in fact makes it difficult to check the quality of the product, which leads to the purchase of an inferior product, and sometimes it is impossible to return or exchange the product, which in turn leads to wasted money. Another problem is that online shopping has made people compulsive shoppers. In addition, there is always the risk of financial information being obtained for use by hackers for security reasons, since there is always news of data leaks even from well-known brands and websites.

In conclusion, it can be clearly seen that although product reliability and financial risk have a certain impact on people, employment opportunities for them, especially in the field of employment, should also be considered. However, one must be careful about fraud and misrepresentation when buying from different sites.