ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 examines how e-commerce and business logistics, together, accelerate the circulation of commodities, intensifying resource-intensive overconsumption. Online shopping is characterised not merely by digital browsing and transactions, but also by high-speed distribution systems, including personalised courier delivery. Big Retail and Big Logistics have acted as agents of accelerated commodity exchange and distribution, with behemoth Amazon raising standards and expectations regarding consumer convenience and rapid delivery. This chapter draws on David Harvey to conceptualise the circulation and accumulation of capital, highlighting ecologically consequential consumption undertaken by capitalists as they pursue growth and expansion. In the case of e-commerce and its supporting logistics systems and infrastructures, powerful corporations have reconfigured the rhythm of contemporary shopping. Examining the role of Amazon in the e-commerce and logistics sectors, the chapter emphasises how rising consumer expectations of convenience and speed, and the normalisation of hyper-individualised shopping and delivery, produce yet more environmental strain on an overburdened planet.
