Canadian Retailer - Fall 2015 - 13

marketing tops the priority list for canadian
online retailers

"What are your top three initiatives and priorities for your
online/digital business in 2015?" (Please select three)

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2% International expansion
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It's a sentiment that's shared by Sucharita Mulpuru,
vice-president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. She believes that the key takeaway from the report is that "Canadian online retailers are getting stronger" and that, slowly but surely, Canadian merchants are
"gaining ground" on their international competitors.
"It's true that Canadian retailers are still behind retailers operating in many other parts of the world. However,
the majority of Canadian online retailers surveyed reported growth in the double digits in 2014. Metrics such
as conversion rates and average order values have increased as well, while customer acquisition, fulfillment,
and customer service costs per order have decreased."
This is big news for retailers operating across the country. As costs come down the ability for them to innovate,
and the opportunities for them to grow their online channels increase exponentially.
Another key takeaway from the report includes the fact
that marketing and customer acquisition seems to be the
biggest priority for Canadian retailers.
"Marketing is most definitely the number one focus for
Canadian retailers at the moment," says Mulpuru. "They
want to increase their exposure and broaden their brand
appeal to bring in new customers. They're also concentrating a considerable amount of effort on omni-channel,
site merchandising, and mobile."
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Because customer acquisition is at the top of the list for
retailers in the country, according to the survey they're
beginning to invest less in traditional marketing efforts
to achieve their goals.
"Most of the retailers that we spoke to are using triedand-true efforts to attract and engage with their audiences," Mulpuru points out. "Compared to their U.S.
counterparts, Canadian retailers are spending modestly
on efforts like email and paid search."
She doesn't shy away from highlighting the fact that
Canadian e-commerce is still relatively small and underrepresented-only about 6 per cent of all retail in the
country comes from online sales-and that it's smaller
than other markets around the world. But it's a trend that
she sees changing as we move forward into 2016.
"E-commerce in Canada is growing quickly," she says.
"And it's likely to develop quite rapidly over the years
to come. As customer familiarity concerning shopping
online continues to increase, so too will the propensity for Canadian retailers to continue improving their
omni-channel offerings and the overall retail experience
for Canadian consumers."
To download the full version of the 2015 E-commerce
Benchmark Survey, available in English and French, visit
www.retailcouncil.org/research/industry-research.

FALL 2015 | canadian retailer

| 13

http://crossborder3pl.com/ http://crossborder3pl.com/ http://www.retailcouncil.org/research/industry-research http://www.retailcouncil.org/cdnretailer

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - Fall 2015