A charity retailer is an organization that only sells merchandise that directly benefits or supports a specific cause or several causes.
Published in Chapter:
Retailer-Non-Profit Organization (NPO) Partnerships: Building Trust with Socially Conscious Consumers
Janice Rudkowski (Helianthus Consulting, Canada & Ryerson University, Canada)
Copyright: © 2014
|Pages: 18
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-6074-8.ch017
Abstract
This chapter focuses on strategic retailer-Non-Profit Organization (NPO) partnerships, based in North America and Europe, from a management perspective. It explores how and why these partnerships have had an impact on the retailer-consumer relationship, how they have shaped and influenced socially conscious shoppers, and how they have affected consumer trust as well as retail business practices and strategies, within the last decade. Retailer-NPO partnerships have emerged as a viable business strategy to support Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives now commonplace among most large retail organizations. Consumers have become empowered, with the help of new social media technologies, to efficiently communicate, influence, and persuade other consumers around the globe. Therefore, consumers increasingly expect retailers to have an ethical and social responsibility to their people, products, operations, and communities. CSR practices have become integral to retailer sustainability and managing complex retailer-consumer relationships. This chapter reviews relevant theoretical frameworks, discusses the latest research findings from literature sources, and examines the industry practices (case studies) of several retailer-NPO partnerships across North America and Europe.