Greening retail: an Indian experience

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent of greening retail taking place in Indian context and identifies its core groups of green retail practices. Design/methodology/approach -A questionnaire was developed and used to collect data from retailers of green products, and caselets were developed. Findings -Nine core groups of green retail practices are identified -distinctness of green products, promoting sustainable business practices, use of environmental keywords, promotion for awareness, promotional offers for sale, ensuring availability and visibility of green products, approval for environmental claims, environmentally friendly appeal of store and consumer involvement approaches. Research limitations/implications -Findings of the study should be generalised with its limitations; though are useful in understanding greening retail concept. Originality/value -This paper is original in terms of its value addition to the green marketing literature and extends the concept of sustainability to retailing.

Sustainable Retailing in the Fashion Industry: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Secondhand fashion has gained attention from researchers in both developing countries (e.g., [32,36]) and developed countries (e.g., [15,18,26,[37][38][39]). However, the most extant research explores companies' sustainability practices in developed countries, because there are more established companies that have built upon their business success and continue to have an influential impact on the business model.…”

“…Ha-Brookshire and Norum [29] suggest that consumers' willingness to pay for premium or sustainable fashion products is positively affected by their attitudes toward sustainable products and brand names, but negatively influenced by consumers' attitudes towards the environment, age, and price. Kumar [32] describes the practices of sustainable retailing in India and identifies nine core groups of sustainable retail practices, such as promoting sustainable business practices, promoting awareness practices, and consumer involvement approaches. Ritch and Schröder [33] explore the fashion consumption behavior of professional women in the UK and find that these consumers apply heuristics to their fashion consumption behavior.…”

“…After that, the articles were further refined by these themes as the data analysis proceeded. The results of data analysis indicated that these research articles could be categorized into five major content areas, which include: (1) sustainable retailing in disposable fashion, fast fashion, and slow fashion [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]; (2) green branding and eco-labeling [15,17,20,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]; (3) retailing of secondhand fashion [15,18,21,26,32,[36][37][38][39]; (4) reverse logistics in fashion retailing [21,22,[36][37][38]40,41]; (5) emerging retailing opportunities in e-commerce [15,21,22,[42][43]…”

“…Kumar [32] Practices of sustainable retailing in India include nine core groups, such as promoting sustainable business practices, promoting awareness practices, and consumer involvement approaches.…”

“…Specifically, secondhand fashion retailers should focus on the quality of the product, build up a loyalty membership program, and educate customers to develop a green attitude [32]; provide transparent information about the benefits of secondhand purchases, raise the public awareness of fashion recycling, and encourage consumers to engage in secondhand purchases [39]; and cooperate with charity organizations to promote secondhand product reuses [38].…”