Canadian Retailer - Holiday 2013 - 36

2013 KPMG ROUNDTABLE

NAVIGATING IN A NEW WORLD OF E-COMMERCE: FROM ONLINE TO OMNICHANNEL

Willy Kruh: In the new world of e-commerce, transactions often begin at one channel and end at
another. At one time, e-commerce meant simply
selling products or services through two or more
channels. Omnichannel is the next level or evolution
of multi-channel retail as it incorporates mobile commerce and social media to further enhance customer
engagement. In this new world of omnichannel retail,
the lines between online and in-store have become
blurred, and the two are no longer viewed as distinct
from one another. Rather, if done well, they have
become an integrated, holistic, seamless and pleasurable retail experience. It's clear, however, that different retailers are at various levels of development in
Canada with regard to omnichannel. Some have embraced it fully, while others are reticent to invest their
resources. To kick-off to our roundtable discussion this
year, I asked our attendees to share their experiences,
lesson's learned, and how they feel they are progressing in this multi-faceted world of omnichannel retail.
Bruce Dinan: "It's interesting In 2012, online sales in
that in the early days, the onCanada only accounted for
line aspect used to be seen as 3.7% of total retail sales,
well below the estimated
competition by our in-store
online sales in the U.S.
associates. But not anymore.
-Canadian Retailer magazine,
Now, it's about merging the
Summer 2013 issue, "The rise of
two. If we don't have someE-commerce in Canada".
thing in stock in the store, we
take our customer's online while in store, to show them what
we have to offer. Online may only constitute 3-5 per cent of
total annual sales in Canada for retail, but pre-shopping and
product research is an important component. The value of
having online is not just how much you sell off your website."
Terry Beauchamp: "We were late to the game with regard to
digital. Our website was only set up 6-7 years ago but it wasn't
properly managed. In the last 2-3 years we finally got up to
speed. That being said, we are one store. People have to come
in to our store. Regardless, digital is just a channel that let's
you get back to the basics-at the end of the day it's still about
customer service."
David Margolis: "I recently heard a statistic that indicated
86 per cent of Canadians make purchasing decisions based
on information gathered via their mobile devices. I also heard
another stat that said the world now has more smartphones
than toilets! You are right, Willy-things have changed more
in retail in the last two years than at any other point in time.
The challenge is how to get all these types of communications
into one holistic message. It's about our generation learning
about the new ways to market our business. The old school
methods no longer work without incorporating new technologies. It's quite complex."

36 |

canadian retailer | holiday 2013 | www.retailcouncil.org/cdnretailer

Michael Medline: "Consumers today don't distinguish between online and in-store-they don't
differentiate. We are shifting our focus to digital
marketing: digital in-store and digital online. Interestingly, the technology and marketing folks
in our organization have become best friends-
which I never thought would happen! Despite
these changes, the fundamentals of marketing in
retail haven't changed that much over the years.
The consumer of today has the same wants and
desires as the consumer of 100 years ago-the
only difference now is that the tools we use to
market have changed."
Charles Brown: "A great omnichannel experience is all about the customer experience. You
have to give people a better experience by integrating the physical with the digital. Our focus
has been on the infrastructure. What I mean by
this is that we are extending the in-store experience into the Web, and the Web into the in-store
experience-it's about integrating the two. We
have 715 stores situated across Canada, and 70
per cent of Canadians live within 5 kilometres of
The Source stores. We need to turn the fact that
we have stores everywhere into a delivery point,
and then make it about an experience when the
customer comes into the store. Your online strategies have to work with your in-store strategy.
We are making significant capital investments
in the Web, but we're doing the same for instore-you have to have both."

http://www.retailcouncil.org/cdnretailer

Canadian Retailer - Holiday 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - Holiday 2013