Building Sustainable Business through Omnichannel Retailing

Abstract

The retail business is evolving rapidly, and this is happening as a result of changes in consumer demand and behavior. Omnichannel has transformed traditional retailing in every manner. It also altered the consumer's behavior, as they use more than one channel and different touchpoint throughout their purchasing journey now, than they did earlier. Numerous researchers and academics have also indicated that the seamlessness is one of the distinctive and significant characteristics of the omnichannel that, in comparison to other elements, has the greatest impact on consumer behavior. Moreover, in today’s informed and educated markets, consumers are more than aware and sensitive towards sustainability and environment- friendly practices and hence, increased pressure is being faced by companies to incorporate green practices, not just in production and manufacturing, but also in operations and supply chain activities. The concept of omnichannel is still in its preliminary stages of development which formed the groundwork for the primary goal of this research, i.e., to understand the omnichannel retailing. Furthermore, the article aimed to gain an understanding of the diverse elements that influence omnichannel retailing. Lastly, the study aimed to identify the contributions of omnichannel retailing towards sustainable business development. Systematic review of literature was adopted as the methodology employed in the present work and most of the insights in the paper were obtained from secondary sources published between January 2015 and December 2022. The significant addition of this work is to the advancement and improvement of knowledge in the areas of omnichannel retailing and its contribution towards sustainable business development.