Mapping of the e-commerce of the future is complete
During the autumn of 2020, CLOSER, Relog and Vinnova conducted a series of workshops with the aim of mapping sustainable e-commerce in the future. E-commerce has quadrupled in the last ten years and actors from government, industry, business, interest groups and the public sector were brought together to identify opportunities and challenges for sustainable e-commerce in the future.
Digital workshops
The project included workshops with participants from a wide range of relevant business actors, interest groups, national authorities, municipalities and regions and landed in eight coherent key areas in need of change. These areas are strongly interconnected and can create a great effect on the entire system - effects that contribute to the adjustment that is sought. A strong need was discovered for a common continuation.
The workshop series was conducted digitally due to the pandemic. The actors who participated from different industries were put together to get a common and nuanced picture of needs, as well as the system in general to be able to prioritize the need for efforts and activities accordingly.
They were brought together in different small groups and the focus of the discussion was which factors constitute sustainable e-commerce within 3-5 years based on a classic user scenario. The vision was based on eight different places that can be found in urban, suburban and rural environments. That is, the places; bus stop, school, shopping center, workplace, hotel, grocery store, home and public place. These connected areas revolve around "sustainable delivery" according to the various actors who came from both the private and public sectors.
How can sustainable e-commerce be achieved based on these sites and what changes and conditions are required? The workshop series was based on Design Thinking (DT) which is a tool process that provides creative tools for solving problems.
Results
The material from the workshops was analyzed and compiled based on the eight selected areas that were in need of change. By creating changes to any of these, a great effect is created on the entire system, which can contribute to the adjustment that is sought.
Finally, a report was compiled describing and analyzing these eight areas. This report also announces an approach to how these problems should be tackled in the future and which actors need to be involved in these to create change.
From the beginning, there was a desired geographical spread among the participants but this was difficult to achieve due to Covid-19. However, the participants were from different parts of the country. Southern, central and northern Sweden were represented, which meant that the geographical spread was nevertheless met.
