Canadian Retailer - Fall 2016 - 25

E-COMMERCE

At any moment, there are a
lot of test and learn initiatives
on the go in this creative commons. Some have come to fruition; some are still being worked
on by Canadian Tire's tech
team, which Davies can't yet
share. "I'm confident some will
be home runs, some will strike
out, and some will be singles,"
he says. "That is the way it goes
with e-commerce. You need to
change constantly, be nimble
and adapt, rather than stick to
your original course."
Part of changing and adapting to this new retail road is staying abreast of what the latest ecommerce innovations are both
at home and abroad. Canadian
Tire regularly works with developers and brainstorms with
and taps into the expertise of
other leading retailers and technology gurus both in Canada
and in other parts of the globe.
Retailers, like Tesco in the U.K.,
are always touchstones when it
comes to e-commerce.

Canadian Tire WOWing customers with an amazing digital catalogue.

Cataloguing success: WOW Guides hit
homeruns with Canadians

One way Canadian Tire integrates its bricksand-mortar business with its e-commerce offerings is via new, interactive WOW Guides, which
received good press upon their initial launch
earlier this year. This marketing/sales tool is
a reinvention of their tried and true print catalogues, which generations of Canadians looked
forward to receiving in the mail.
"Canadian Tire knows how to do a paper catalogue," Davies explains. "But, to take a plain
paper catalogue and make it relevant in a digital world is remarkable. We added in a couple
hundred extra pages of digital content."
When you opened the WOW Guide in the
Canadian Tire App, you could hover and discover: watch videos that helped you with product
knowledge and see special content not available
in the paper magazine. This guide drove e-commerce sales and also had a good halo effect on
Canadian Tire's bricks-and-mortar business.
"Our focus is to continue to get better in ecommerce, but to go down an omnichannel
path where we strengthen our bricks-and-mortar
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"Our focus is to continue to get better in
e-commerce, but to go
down an omnichannel path where we
strengthen our bricksand-mortar business at
the same time to make
our stores stronger and
seamless with our
e-commerce channel."

business at the same time to make
our stores stronger and seamless
with our e-commerce channel,"
Davies adds.
In mid-August, as parents and
kids enjoyed the dog days of summer, and started prepping for backto-school, Canadian Tire launched
a second e-commerce digital publication: The WOW Hockey Guide.
This is smaller than the original
WOW guide, but was just as well
received. The strategy, according
- ANDREW DAVIES
to Davies, helps support parents
Canadian Tire
and kids navigate the world of buying new equipment for one of Canada's favourite winter pastimes.
"Fall is the time when kids are signing up for, and starting to play
hockey again," he says. "The guides include tons of video content
on how to properly fit kids and tips on what equipment to buy."
As this issue went to print, there were also plans to release a
FALL WOW Guide with the focus on the chores of fall. "Life in Canada is changing at this time of year with kids going back in school,"
Davies explains. "Things at the house are different. The idea with
this guide is to help Canadians with this transition." Canadian Tire
released both a digital and paper version of this guide.

FALL 2016 | CANADIAN RETAILER

| 25

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - Fall 2016