5 Drivers Behind Retail Sustainability

JUNE 8, 2016

A number of factors are currently disrupting retail and changing long-established standards in the industry. These include changing technology, new supply chain models and well informed consumers empowered with information on retailers’ business practices, just to name a few.

Economic conditions are improving, yet other indicators such as shifting consumer confidence mean retailers must carefully manage growth while paying heed to these and other forces to retain customer loyalty, maintain margins and improve operations.

Before a sustainability strategy can be planned, the five drivers impacting retail must be carefully consideration by the C-suite. Each of these drivers carry unique pressures, they include:

• Technology
• Big data
• Demographics
• New consumption patterns
• Resource constraints

Each of these trends fall under one area of business: sustainability. While sustainability plans may vary for different retailers depending on size, number of locations and regulatory oversight, there’s no denying that each factor affects a retailer in one significant way or another.

An outlook on sustainability

The effect these five drivers have on future of retail is crucial for major retail brands in the US and worldwide. The rapid evolution in each segment can serve to hinder or advance retailers’ efforts to build or redirect a sustainability strategy. Each should be viewed with a consumer-minded focus, and as a competitive differentiator.

According to the 2015 Conscious Consumer Spending Index, 64 percent of American consumers acknowledged the importance of buying from socially responsible companies. Additionally, 32 percent of those surveyed said they planned to spend more with companies who are socially responsible.

With consumers paying closer attention to a company’s sustainability efforts, retailers must make sustainability a higher priority. Even while they recognize this, however, many in the industry struggle with committing time and resources to each of the drivers of retail sustainability.

Sustainability through partnerships

Due to internal and external pressures and rising consumer expectations, retailers must take a new approach to their sustainability strategies. In the past, creating sustainability plans may have been a completely internal exercise, but the today’s environment requires partners that can assess, advise and help direct decisions impacting the following areas impacting sustainability:

• Technology – While cloud, mobile and social are all major drivers, it’s not always clear how these apply to sustainability programs. Retail IT teams are focused on harnessing technology solutions to revenue-facing programs, but IT should also be involved in sustainability planning.
• Big data – Acquiring insight from big data can give a company a competitive edge on the market. Sustainability plays a role by leveraging big data and analytics to identify areas where a company can become more efficient through new programs and making their positive impact publicly known, raising customer loyalty.
• Demographics – Sustainability programs can differ depending upon the areas in which a retailer operates. For national or multi-state retailers, policies and standards of these overlapping local, state and federal agencies can shift and keeping up-to-date on these changes can be difficult and time-consuming. Environmental solutions providers with first-hand, real-time knowledge of national and regional variances can are able to keep these sensitivities in mind.
• New consumption patterns – Many solutions providers for the retail sector are skilled in determining changing consumer consumption patterns. This knowledge can lead to changes in inventory, logistics, delivery patterns and even marketing campaigns. Regarding sustainability, software and technology-enabled equipment can be used to help retailers and their vendors with adapting to inventory, delivery, fulfillment and waste removal needs thus making this aspect of the business more efficient.
• Resource limitations – One of the major challenges for all businesses are the limitations on time and resources to take on important projects, like a forward-looking long-term sustainability plan. Often, retailers do not have the luxury of extra staff in IT, corporate social responsibility, logistics and waste management to maintain constant vigilance over sustainability. Expert partners in environmental solutions can help retailers identify which areas of their sustainability plan should be prioritized in order to optimize resources and protect against potential environmental fines.

Retailers’ ability to incorporate sustainability in each facet of their business—from training employees to managing the supply chain to handling toxic materials at brick-and-mortar locations—will differentiate them from their competition and bring much needed and valued transparency for consumers. By successfully focusing on the five drivers, retailers can ensure they are on the path to a more stable and profitable future.