The purpose of this study is to examine the proliferation of retail-driven sustainability certification schemes focusing on the role of certification and its design from a corporate perspective. It does so by exploring three different cases of certification design in the food retailing industry: unilateral Tesco Nurture, collaborative GlobalGAP, and multi-stakeholder UTZ certifications. Using case study methods and viewing the certifications through the application of collective action logic and dynamic capability theory, we provide new insights important to researchers, retailers, and supply chains. The results of this study show that retail efforts to develop certifications are driven by better alignment with the business’ goal of improving the sustainability performance of supply chains. Retail-driven certifications can enable stronger brand assurance, stakeholder satisfaction, competitive development of certified supply volumes, and dynamic capabilities that contribute to effective, efficient and faster upgrades to sustainability practices in the supply chain. The contributions of this study also identify numerous factors that influence the development of certifications via collaborative/multi-stakeholder or unilateral efforts. There are three major factors: 1) trade-offs between different aspects of certification design and institutional-stakeholder context, 2) challenges of ‘collective’ bargaining, and 3) generation of dynamic capabilities. From results, we posit the co-existence of multiple certifications, called “standards multiplicity,” as advantageous for facilitating retailers’ engagement with sustainable supply chain management. Finally, conclusions and implications allow us to predict the evolving complexity of retail-driven certifications will enable dynamic capabilities, opportunities for creating competitive advantage, and open a dialogue for other industries to learn from these insights. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd