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The Future of Retailing: Sustainable and Digital Transformation

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2022) | Viewed by 2601

Special Issue Editors

Said Business School, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 1HP, UK
Interests: retailing; technology; e-commerce; entrepreneurship; urban planning
Department of Urban Studies, Malmö University, S-205 06 Malmö, Sweden
Interests: retailing; digitalisation; e-commerce; customer loyalty; buying behaviour

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Countless surveys in recent times report that sustainability considerations are a key concern for many types of shoppers in all types of geographies. Yet, for shoppers and, therefore, retailers and brand owners, considerations of sustainability in business practices and in buying behaviours are complex and multi-dimensional. They extend not just to a concern for the environmental impact of product sourcing, production, distribution, and consumption, but also to considerations of product packaging—both its excess and its recyclability; recycling at the end of life of a product; consuming products sourced closer to the points of demand; the sustainability of practices across entire value chains including the means of delivery to the final consumer. For store-based retailers, the environmental impact of retail real estate and its contribution to the vitality and viability of urban centres is also of interest. At the same time, we see a parallel growth in digital technologies which continue to emphasise convenience and just-in-time distribution, with ecommerce channels having experienced substantial growth in penetration of retail sales at the expense of store-based retailing, not least during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Some firms, active in a range of channels, must consider the combined and sometimes conflicting impacts of this activity on people and planet.

Ultimately, retail organisations are faced with managing this interplay of forces: the twin strategic challenges of achieving digital transformation whilst ensuring that their business strategies contribute to their sustainability goals. The rise of populist movements seeking to address the sustainability agenda has added considerable further impetus and focus to retail business decision-making in this space. How do we address these tensions and, in some cases, contradictions; how do we understand changing consumer attitudes and trade-offs; and how does this affect the viability of business models and processes in retailing and the future of the sector? The Special Issue aims to draw from a range of disciplinary perspectives in both the social and physical sciences to address these and other questions, which have previously only been largely addressed in a limited way within disciplinary silos. Towards this goal, we welcome conceptual, methodological and empirical contributions in this Special Issue that focuses on the future of retailing—sustainable and digital transformation.

With this call, therefore, we invite scholarly contributions at the interface between sustainability and digital technologies in the retail sector. Specifically, this call is focused, non-exclusively, on the following topics:

  • Achieving more sustainable e-commerce logistics and distribution;
  • Developing sustainable, omnichannel retail business models and supply chains;
  • Digital developments in the sharing economy;
  • Digital procurement and local sustainability;
  • Organisational and cultural aspects of digital transformation in retailing;
  • Price, convenience and sustainability: exploring the consumer intention–action gap;
  • Public policy implications of sustainable and digital transformation in retailing;
  • Purpose- and sustainability-driven retail business logic;
  • Retail- and urban planning for the future;
  • Social aspects of sustainable and/or digital transformation for the future of retailing;
  • Sustainability in retail business practices and processes;
  • Sustainability in retail consumer practices and shopping processes;
  • The future of retail real estate ;
  • The impact of sustainable retailing on the urban environment;
  • The impact of e-commerce on city centres and sustainability;
  • The role of data analytics in sustainability and digital transformation.

Prof. Dr. Jonathan Reynolds
Prof. Dr. Malin Sundström
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • retailing
  • future omnichannel
  • digital transformation
  • supply chain
  • consumption
  • sustainability

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 1083 KiB  
Article
Integrating Retail into an Urban Data Platform from a Stakeholder Perspective: Network Approaches in Leipzig (Germany)
by Katrin Schade, Marcus Hübscher, Felix zur Lage, Juana Schulze and Johannes Ringel
Sustainability 2022, 14(10), 5900; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14105900 - 12 May 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1689
Abstract
Growth rates in e-commerce, changing consumer behaviors, and COVID-19 have all put pressure on local retailers worldwide, threatening the resilience of city centers. Local online platforms (LOPs) have been considered as a solution to help local retailers increase their visibility and survive on [...] Read more.
Growth rates in e-commerce, changing consumer behaviors, and COVID-19 have all put pressure on local retailers worldwide, threatening the resilience of city centers. Local online platforms (LOPs) have been considered as a solution to help local retailers increase their visibility and survive on the market. However, most platforms fail to attract a significant number of stakeholders. Simultaneously, digital platform solutions with more holistic urban perspectives, such as urban data platforms (UDPs), have emerged. However, a question remains: how can the integration of retail data (e.g., product availabilities) into a UDP succeed? Therefore, in this paper, we explore stakeholder-oriented networking processes to integrate local retail data into a UDP in Leipzig, Germany. Leipzig has increased its population by 26% since 2000, but presents the highest retail vacancy rate, compared to other major German cities. To investigate the networking process in Leipzig, we conduct a social network analysis which combines qualitative interviews, mapping, and ethnographic research. We interview ten stakeholders and uncover conflicts within the networking process: First, all stakeholders have different understandings of UDPs and how to integrate local retail data; second, the interviewees acknowledge the importance of, but none of them feel responsible for, initiating or managing the process; and third, the city administration has shown diverging interest, in terms of taking on more responsibility. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Retailing: Sustainable and Digital Transformation)
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