Sustainability is no longer optional for retail businesses—it’s an expectation. Retail companies have a prominent role to play, along with significant opportunities to act responsibly and sustainably, as they sit at the center of a complex ecosystem that includes various suppliers, service providers, financial institutions and consumers.
Each link in the chain offers opportunities to drive sustainability and grow revenue. As a result of the increasing desire for more sustainability, consumers are probably the most important influencing factor driving retailers to focus on sustainability and explore long-term sustainable strategies.
Sustainability-conscious consumers are a highly interesting target group for retailers since they are typically in the middle of life (both at work and in their private lives), live predominantly in urban areas and have a medium to high shopping budget. In addition, they like to use technical innovations and solutions to shop as effectively as possible.
In order to attract and retain these desirable consumers, retail companies are enriching their product range with regional and sustainable articles from traceable supply chains and focusing on waste avoidance and energy savings with renewable energy.
Store IT also contributes to retailer sustainability. The store is an important point of contact during consumer journeys—they can make their purchases directly on-site, pick up items ordered online and, if necessary, return them.
Facing—and embracing—the changing retail environment will require retailers to accurately map consumer expectations while preparing for changing consumer behavior.
A holistic approach to driving change can ensure long-term success
Diebold Nixdorf designed
StorevolutionTM to support retailers in the rapidly shifting modern world. The approach identifies four essential milestones retailers must address moving forward in the quest to keep their stores relevant and competitive: consumer centricity, store digitization, high connectivity and store as a service. Storevolution equips retailers with the flexibility to respond to slight changes or even to global transformations through an IT environment that enables satisfying shopping experiences for consumers at the lowest possible total cost of ownership (TCO) for the retailer. Additionally, the Storevolution approach can help drive sustainability in retail and help store owners reduce their environmental footprint.
IT services will only become more essential in retail. Dedicated, proactive service processes such as remote monitoring and support, predictive analytics and proactive maintenance, can support sustainability by ensuring that possible IT failures are detected at an early stage, reducing field service engineer visits and interventions.
Omnichannel solutions connect the digital and physical worlds in real-time, enabling consumers to research the sustainability of products even before they go shopping, and to check availability at the store of their choice to avoid out-of-stock experiences.
Efficient, optimized checkout solutions can underpin sustainability initiatives, especially when they’re designed with sustainability at the forefront throughout every phase of the product lifecycle—from product planning, development, production, logistics, operation, service and maintenance to the return and recycling of the POS.
