Communication of Sustainability in Omnichannel Retailing as a Tool to Increase Brand Engagement: An Abstract

Abstract

The purpose of omnichannel retailing is to maximize customer experience across channels and the different touchpoints. A customer may start shopping online to collect more information about the product or the brand and then complete the purchase in-store or vice versa (Bang et al., 2013). Consequently, engaging customers with the brand across channels has been particularly considered as one of the challenges for omnichannel retailers (Blackmon, 2016). For this reason, it is important to understand which activities are capable of increasing consumer engagement. Among such activities, communication plays a crucial role (Hansen & Sia, 2015; Herhausen et al., 2015). Consumers are concerned about the impact of their purchasing decisions on the environment (Kang et al., 2013; Bianchi & Gonzalez, 2021). Retailers occupy a central position in promoting sustainability. They can in fact be considered active intermediaries between producers and consumers and thanks to their position, they can encourage the use of sustainable production methods and influence consumers in the adoption and purchase of ecological products (Naidoo, 2018). The communication of sustainability through different touch points by retailers could have positive results influencing consumption (Aertsens et al., 2011) and increasing consumers’ brand engagement. Therefore, the aim of our study is to understand how omnichannel retailers can communicate their sustainability efforts across offline and online channels to increase customer brand engagement. To answer our research question, we will adopt a multiple case study approach. In particular, we want to examine how retailers communicate sustainability to consumers. Moreover, we will compare sustainability communication strategies adopted by retailers and see if the sustainable message is communicated in the same way and through the same touchpoints. We search to examine if communication of sustainability leads to positive or negative engagement of consumers. Data will be mainly collected through semi-structured interviews with company informants and secondary sources such as company websites, sustainability reports, and social media accounts of the chosen retailers. This study could have both theoretical and managerial contributions. Firstly, the study will advance the literature on omnichannel retailing. Moreover, through our analysis, we will strengthen the role of the various touchpoints in the communication process, and in particular the communication of sustainability. Secondly, the paper contributes to the research on consumer brand engagement. We assume that sustainable communication transmitted from a retailer via offline and online channels to a consumer would increase the level of brand engagement of the latter. From a managerial perspective, the qualitative study would highlight the most promising touch points that an omnichannel retailer can utilize to communicate its sustainability.