Environmentally sustainable omnichannel deliveries: a systematic review of requirements and strategies

Abstract

The retail industry is transforming at an unprecedented speed and scale with the advent of omnichannel strategies, thus leading to growing concerns about its environmental impact. The purpose of this paper is to identify the requirements that affect the possibilities of obtaining environmentally sustainable omnichannels and the strategies to be used by retailers and logistics service providers (LSPs) to minimise the environmental impact. The study systematically reviews 71 scholarly publications in highly ranked journals. The paper develops and proposes a conceptual framework that revolves around five factors that determine the environmental impact of omnichannel deliveries: freight transport, consumer travel, packaging, buildings and returns. Each of these factors needs to fulfil multiple requirements from LSPs, retailers and consumers. The review shows that the challenge of obtaining environmentally sustainable omnichannels is a multi-actor problem. It is clear that retailers and LSPs must adjust operations and strategies both separately and together, which adds complexity to the problem. The framework provides a comprehensive picture of which requirements LSPs and retailers must address to obtain environmentally sustainable omnichannels. The study is original in that it synthesises existing requirements and strategies, and proposes additional strategies for future research aimed at minimising the environmental impact of omnichannel deliveries.