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Introduction

The retail landscape has undergone a profound transformation in the past 10 years. Indeed, the convergence of digital technology and sustainability has revolutionised the way retailers operate, influencing every aspect of their design, marketing, and branding strategies. Thus, this special issue seeks to publish cutting-edge scholarly research that investigates current issues concerning technology and sustainability and its interplay with design, branding and marketing, exploring the use of research and practice for the retail industry going forward.

We discuss below several issues that warrant investigation. 

Sustainable Marketing & Greenwashing: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how fast the environment can change, with retailing and supply chains coming to a global halt. We have seen shifts in consumer behaviour, with people becoming increasingly more environmentally conscious, putting pressure on companies to adapt their current working practices as a result. Sustainability is, therefore, acting as a key driver for innovation, encouraging retailers and brands to adopt out-of-the-box thinking and find novel solutions without exploiting the social, environmental or economic environment (Henninger et al., 2020). As a result, there has also been a rise in the number of businesses that are interested in eco-social responsibility activities like green marketing (Nguyen & Johnson, 2020). However, Yu (2020) noted that consumers who are sceptical of sustainable advertising are more likely to view green advertising as a means of profit maximisation rather than environmental protection. Indeed, Richardson et al., (2022) found that Gen Z consumers distrust brands’ sustainability initiatives, branding them as ‘greenwashing’. Therefore, further research needs to be conducted to see how brands can adapt to more sustainable practices and produce marketing communications that are not simply greenwashing. 

The Cost-of-Living Crisis & Physical Store Strategies: The cost-of-living crisis has put further pressure on brands’ supply chains and their ability to appeal to consumers who have increasingly less disposable income. This is in addition to a decade that has seen physical retail stores struggling, with commercial vacancies on high streets higher than ever (Journal of Retailing, 2022). The Centre for Retail Research estimates that since the start of 2018 alone more than 386,000 retail jobs will have been lost in the UK (Deloitte, 2021). This highlights the imperative for retailers to reconsider their physical store strategies and focus on the design and experience created for customers. 

The Role of Technology & Branding: Technology is one way for retailers to enhance aspects concerning their design, branding, and marketing. The latest technology is enabling brands to reach consumers more directly that ever before (Journal of Retailing, 2022), thereby dramatically changing the way that brands communicate with consumers (Pizzi & Scarpi 2020). Yet, with increasingly advanced technologies coming out each year, coupled with the shortening of technology life cycles, retailers need to constantly reimagine their strategies in order to remain competitive in a rapidly changing environment. As consumers have become used to interacting with new technologies, they leave their favourite brands with no choice but to implement them in order to keep up with the competition (Boardman, Henninger & Zhu, 2020).

Online Retailing Experiences: This intense competition means that online retailers must offer a superior online shopping experience than their competitors (Kaushik et al., 2020). This places more pressure on creating compelling retail websites and omnichannel experiences. In online and social commerce, consumers are unable to inspect products physically, therefore having to make purchase decisions by looking at online images, reading product descriptions, and then using their imagination (Li et al., 2019; Hjort et al., 2019). The inconsistency between purchased products and expectations is an essential manifestation of product dissonance (Powers & Jack, 2015). This is increasing the likelihood of consumer returns which is having a significant negative affect on the environment. Furthermore, such product inconsistency can cause significant damage to retailers and brands (Li & Choudhury, 2020). As a result, further research is needed to investigate how ecommerce and social commerce can be more effective and reduce the high rate of returns. 

Livestreaming & Social Commerce: With new social media channels coming out all the time brands need to ensure that they are on the ones that appeal to their target market and that their content is engaging. Livestreaming on social media is becoming more commonplace, enabling brands to increase consumer awareness whilst also driving sales (Journal of Retailing, 2022). The future of social commerce has many potential avenues, such as incorporating Augmented Reality and voice search in order to enhance consumer experiences (Chrimes et al., 2019). Brands can also use social platforms to embed gamification to appeal to consumers’ desire for personalisation, self-expression and playfulness online, aspects that have increased since the pandemic (Chen et al., 2022). Whittaker et al. (2021) show that gamification can even be used for sustainability marketing and in encouraging more sustainable consumer behaviour but research into wider demographics is still needed. Indeed, Generation Z (born between 1995 and 2010 approximately) are now growing as a consumer force. Not only do they have their own spending power and are no longer reliant upon parents, they also have strong and distinctive wants and needs that retailers and brands need to provide for (Deloitte 2021). 

Design, Branding and Marketing in the Metaverse: Furthermore, advances in the metaverse are creating more challenges as well as more opportunities for design, branding and marketing. Yet to be fully realised, the metaverse is conceptualised as being an interconnected, 3D virtual world that overlaps with, or provides an alternative to, physical reality and is inhabited by avatars of real people (Kim, 2021). Hence, it signifies the ultimate merging of digital and physical reality (WGSN, 2020). The pressure is now on brands to partner with retailers in order to create new and compelling virtual experiences for consumers (Journal of Retailing, 2022). Thus, as brands are entering the metaverse through consumer-facing technologies and virtual platforms, such as AR, gaming and digital fashion shows, research addressing the opportunities and barriers in relation to marketing, design and branding is warranted. Areas such as Digital Avatars, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, NFTs, Gamification in Marketing, Blockchain, Digital Fashion, Virtual Brand Experiences and Artificial Intelligence are all gaining traction in response to this. 

As such, retailers need to re-address their design, branding and marketing in order to encompass both social and environmental sustainability as well as incorporating the latest technologies to survive in a post-pandemic world.

 

List of topic areas

• How have recent events in the economy (e.g., COVID-19 pandemic, cost of living crisis, etc) shaped priorities for design, branding, and/or marketing?
• What sustainability initiatives have retailers implemented to enhance the environmental sustainability of their stores, products, marketing campaigns and how do these impact on branding
• How has our understanding of sustainability changed in design, branding and/or marketing, and how will this impact future directions?
• How have digital technologies influenced retailers' ability to engage in hyper-personalised marketing and customer relationship management, and what impact has this had on brand loyalty and customer satisfaction?
• How have consumer expectations for transparency and corporate social responsibility influenced retailers' marketing messaging and branding efforts in the age of sustainability and digital technology?
• What is the importance or either social or environmental sustainability for design, branding and/or marketing?
• What is the role of technology in future-proofing the industry? How can technology be used to enhance retailers' design, branding and/or marketing?
• What are the opportunities of new, upcoming technologies (e.g. the metaverse) for Design, Branding or Marketing?
• What are the barriers relating to new technologies for Design, Branding or Marketing?

These suggestions do not define the limits of the issues that will be considered. Rather, they can provide a starting point for investigating the multifaceted relationship between digital technology, sustainability, and the strategies of retailers in the contemporary marketplace.

 

Guest Editors

Dr. Courtney Chrimes, 
University of Manchester, UK, 
[email protected]

Dr. Rosy Boardman, 
University of Manchester, UK,
[email protected]

Prof. T.C . Melewar, 
Middlesex University, UK, 
[email protected]

Prof Charles Dennis, 
Middlesex University, UK, 
[email protected]
 

Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available by clicking the button below.
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Author Guidelines must be strictly followed.
Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”. 
Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

 

Key Deadlines

Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 31 January 2024 
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 30 April 2024
Email for submission queries [email protected]