Canadian Retailer - Fall 2015 - 23

Canadian Tire leads with best-in-class merchandising, both in-store and online.

promoting customer endorsements of key products.
Canadian Tire merchandised and marketed "tested"
products across a range of channels. The store created
"epic test" television spots that tested products in extreme (epic) situations-like testing to see if a new car
battery would work in a truck made out of ice. These
spots were modified for the web and the message was
reproduced in traditional channels. In-store product
displays-including inventory and digital screens-were
set up to present the "tested" products to customers. In
every channel, Canadian Tire attempted to maintain a
consistent look and feel-so customers would recognize
the products and to replicate the sense of authenticity

idea of serendipity."
Test and tweak messages

While presenting product in an omni-channel environment requires consistent messages, Flood says
retailers need to remember that the media shapes the
messages. What works on television won't necessarily
work on YouTube.
"Integration isn't a cookie cutter approach, it depends
on the vehicle," says Flood. What's important is that the
underlying message is consistent.
The Canadian Tire flagship store in Edmonton South
Common mall, launched in June 2015, offers an example.
The enormous size of the flagship allows the retailer to
present product differently. More than one
"Mobile can't be an afterthought. It needs to be front-andhundred digital screens integrate the product
centre. Canadian consumers are over the web and now they're displays with the store's digital and print meronto mobile. It's a whole other set of considerations. You can't chandising, and the square footage allows
to show the breadth of the
shrink your website to fit a mobile device, call it a day and say merchandisers
store's product assortment. The store's autothat mobile is done."
- ANDREA STAIRS, eBay Canada motive section has a huge wall displaying the
store's tire inventory. In the seasonal departthat drove the store to launch the epic campaign.
ment, customers can use 3D technology to create a model
Preserve serendipity
of what a new backyard might look like.
Multiple channels require multiple approaches to It's all part of a different way of presenting products to
merchandising. When shopping in stores, most custom- customers. And while the shape of the message should
ers take their time and browse the aisles. Online, most suit the vehicle, retailers should generate offers that are
people browse narrowly, if at all. Most search for what germane to each individual.
they want and go directly to the product.
"You want to figure out what marketing messages
With more than 800 million listings in its market- work in each channel and which messages don't," says
place, ebay Canada has had to work hard to create what Flood. Matching the right merchandising selection with
Andrea Stairs, managing director of Ebay Canada, calls the right customer in the right channel requires know"moments of discovery." One of the solutions ebay en- ledge of the customer and speed. "You want to fail fast
gineered is a new, personalized feed to showcase prod- and keep pace with the customer," says Flood. "Marketucts. Another collection is curated by ebay and presents ing in an age of digital disruption means that you have
customers with inventory they might not have con- to move fast or be left behind."
sidered ebay for.
Ebay has seen success with tailoring merchandis "This is a first," Stairs says. "This is us working on the ing messages to the media. Quickly, the retailer recwww.retailcouncil.org/cdnretailer

FALL 2015 | CANADIAN RETAILER

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