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Workers Returning to Toronto’s Downtown Core Gives Retail and Other Businesses a Boost: Board of Trade

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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King and Bay Street in Toronto (Image: Dustin Fuhs)

With the lifting of pandemic health measures, the Toronto region’s economic recovery is back on track and poised for growth in the coming months.

Recently released data by the Toronto Region Board of Trade, through its Recovery Tracker tool, indicates the economy bounced back in February and the board said “we expect to see a continued upward trend as businesses regain momentum and welcome back visitors and workers.”

Jan De Silva

“The light switch that COVID-19 turned off on our downtown in 2020 has been flipped back on,” said Jan De Silva, President and CEO of the Toronto Region Board of Trade. “As workers return and major events resume, we expect the downtown core will once again become the beehive of activity it was pre-pandemic. This data shows that when fully open, Toronto’s economy thrives.”

Toronto Mayor John Tory said the data is very encouraging news for the city as it continues its reopening and recovery efforts. 

John Tory

“Pre-pandemic, Toronto’s economy was growing at a rapid rate, piquing the interest of global businesses and from people from all over the world. As Mayor I am committed to seeing that through and ensuring that Toronto not only rebounds, but comes back stronger than ever. Thanks to all of the work done by Team Toronto on world-leading vaccination efforts and the resiliency of so many businesses, we can move forward with confidence that Toronto’s recovery is underway,” he said.

Marcy Burchfield

Marcy Burchfield, Vice President of the Board’s Economic Blueprint Institute, said the Institute is a strategic unit at the Board with a mission to harness the power of data and research to understand foreward-facing issues and bring an evidence-based lens to policy making and advocacy to government.

She said the Institute has been tracking economic recovery using a suite of economic indicators for a broader region. 

“COVID had a different impact in each one of those regions. In the downtown, particularly the financial district, where 85 per cent of the workforce were able to easily work from home, the impact of those daytime workers not being there had a huge impact on the 1,700 businesses that are actually located downtown,” said Burchfield.

The latest data found:

  • While employment levels across the Corridor are now close to 100,000 higher than in February 2020, they are still 139,000 below the pre-pandemic growth trend. Similarly, the Corridor-wide unemployment rate is 1.4 percentage points higher than in February 2020 and the employment rate is 0.3 percentage points lower;
  • Employment in the Innovation Corridor has grown faster than the Canadian average since the pandemic began two years ago;
  • With 2.3 per cent growth in employment, the Toronto region has outpaced Canada’s two other largest metropolitan areas: Montreal (1.9 per cent) and Vancouver (1.6 per cent);
  • As COVID-19 cases declined through January and February, workers started to trickle back into their respective places of work. In some districts – namely the Regional Centres, Services and Mixed-Use District, and Knowledge Creation District – worker levels in February were the highest they have been since 2019; and
  • The Omicron induced decline in spending seen in December 2021 and January 2022 appears to have bottomed out as in-person spending started to recover leading into the beginning of February.
Toronto Region Board of Trade (Image: Dustin Fuhs)

Burchfield said the recent release of the Recovery Tracker demonstrates the resiliency of the region and its businesses when they’re not subject to restrictions and temporary measures that stall recovery,” 

 “With the return of many office workers to our downtown core and the City of Toronto’s decision to resume major in-person events, we’re confident businesses can emerge from the pandemic with a thriving regional economy, resume major in-person events, we’re confident businesses can emerge from the pandemic with a thriving regional economy,” she said. “Since June we were on this nice kind of trajectory of recovery and once Omicron kind of took hold in November it just dropped. Workers stopped coming to the downtown area, stopped coming to the financial district. And so consumer spending also dropped.

“In this latest tranche of data that we have for February when restrictions started to loosen, there wasn’t a work from home order from the government, you really saw that when businesses are allowed to open and stay open that we rebound very quickly. That’s why we’re tracking these kinds of indicators. As a Board of Trade, we want the government to understand that there are repercussions for businesses. While they’re needed at certain times, there are repercussions for businesses.

“What we’ve seen is once businesses are allowed to open and stay open, the rebound is quite quick. We’re hoping that we can really move from talking about recovery to talking about getting back to growth by the summer really when people are feeling more comfortable. We’ve got a really high vaccination rate in this region, one of the highest in the world. So I think people are feeling more and more comfortable about mingling. While we will continue to track economic indicators, we really think it will be less around economic recovery and really getting back to growth.

“Through this whole pandemic, retail has really led the way in terms of economic recovery when it comes to consumer spending. Secondary has been those personal services, drycleaning, hair dressing, nails and all that. And what’s always been last is that travel and entertainment category of consumer spending.”

She said a key is bringing back that visitor economy in the area of travel and entertainment and making sure governments have policies in place to allow that economy to thrive.

Canadian Footwear Brand Maguire Expands to NYC with 1st International Storefront: Interviews

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Future Maguire at 198 Elizabeth Street in New York City (Image: Maguire)

Maguire, a Canadian, women-led, direct-to-consumer footwear brand, is opening its first international boutique in New York City.

The store, by sisters and Montrealers Myriam and Romy Maguire, will be located in Nolita at 198 Elizabeth Street – an area once dominated by big brands and flagships, now popping up with independent retailers like Maguire due to pandemic-related commercial rent reductions. 

The 1,000-square-foot boutique, in the trendy neighbourhood, will open its doors to customers in June.

Myriam and Romy began their retail business in 2017 in Montreal and opened a new shop in Toronto in 2020. The sisters plan to continue growth in perhaps other markets in the US and then into Europe in London.

Maguire Montreal Store 5365 St-Laurent Blvd (Image: Maguire)
Myriam Belzile-Maguire

“When we launched (in 2017), we launched with a bunch of events. We did pop ups in containers. We were trying to sell high-end products in containers but we felt that it was not a good fit. So right away in 2017, we took a tiny location inside a glasses shop – a shop in shop – and that guaranteed us a flow of customers coming in every day through the glasses shop and looking at our product,” said Myriam. “Basically when we launched we only had two products and we had five samples. There was a bunch of samples in the store and when people would ask us to try something we would have to tell them we were sold out and they’re coming back in two weeks.

“But from there we built a business. The business has been kind of bootstrapped from the beginning.” 

After the small store, the sisters opened a big concept store in Montreal with their head office at the back of the store. The store is located on St. Laurent while the Toronto store is on Dundas West.

The sisters said the New York store opening coincides with the arrival of a highly-anticipated summer collection, which will feature fashion-forward high-heels for events and occasions, large totes and handbags in playful colours, patterns and classic neutrals, and hot summer sandals in bright, bold colours and metallics.

They said the shop will be a stone’s throw from other hot and like-minded brands such as Everlane, Cuyana, Sézane and Mejuri. 

Maguire Toronto Store 1514 Dundas St West (Image: Maguire)

Maguire moved into the export market between 2020 and 2021, where sales outside Québec have increased from 11 per cent to 42 per cent to date. Sustained online efforts, a new partnership with US retailer Madewell, and a new free shipping option in the US have all contributed to this marked increase in the US sales. These circumstances, coupled with the pandemic-related drop in New York commercial rents, have created the perfect conditions for small, direct-to-consumer businesses like Maguire to carve out a niche in the area just outside of Soho where big brands were dominant pre-COVID, according to the company.

Myriam said the opening of a new store in New York City will be the first time the brand is exposed to an international fashion market. New York is home to one of the four major fashion weeks. People from the industry travel to New York at least twice a year to see what’s new on the market. 

“To become an international brand based in Canada we need to be in a place where a lot of international fashion people hang out,” she said. 

“New York is an opportunity and it’s also a place we always wanted to go.”

Romy said that based on the brand’s experience in Toronto, a storefront like this in New York is still the best way to enter a new market. 

“What we’ve experienced is that when we open a new store we get lots of sales in-store but after a couple of months we get a lot of sales online,” she said. “The physical store brings more sales online for us, every single time we open a store.”

The sisters believe the New York City store will generate sales in the northeast portion of the US. 

“First we’ll open New York and see where the other locations of our customers bring us. It’s going to be a great laboratory to know what’s the next destination in the US. But otherwise, we’re looking to maybe open a location in London to have our first point in Europe, but we’ll need to be more organized in terms of international shipping,” said Myriam. “US first and we’ll focus on the US and then after that we do have plans to maybe open in Europe because we feel it’s like the way to go to become an international brand these days.” 

Myriam worked in the footwear business for more than 10 years, specifically as a shoe designer for 6 of those years at the Aldo Group. By going direct to consumer, like many businesses have done in recent years, from high-end factories in Europe, they were able to sell directly to customers without distributors or agents. That makes it a cost savings for consumers. 

“We ship from the factory to the store and this way we’re also able to be transparent in the way we do business. So we show what the factory looks like, what the conditions are in the factory, we also share the costs of each product with our customers so they know the production costs and for us it’s more a way to educate the customers,” said Myriam.

Romy said at the beginning of the retailer’s existence the intention was to be online only. 

Romy Belzile-Maguire

“But we quickly realized they wanted to try the shoes, see the materials, touch the product. So we realized we needed to integrate the stores. So that’s where we had this vision where you can shop online, buy in-store and vice versa,” she said. “We realized that the shopping experience in-store for shoes was really not fun and shoe shopping should be fun. It’s a lot of fun to buy shoes when you’re a woman. It’s an exciting experience to buy and try on shoes.

“Shoe shopping is about finding the right shoe. We came up with the idea of the big wardrobe in stores. So each of our stores have a built-in wardrobe with all the sizes. So people can try shoes on very quickly. They can try on as many as they want.”

Myriam added that stores are more of a service point, and an experience point, than a place where shoes are sold under pressure. 

Video Interview: Sylvain Charlebois Discusses Canadian Food Availability and Prices During War in Ukraine

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Video Interview: Sylvain Charlebois Discusses Canadian Food Availability and Prices During War in Ukraine

Sylvain Charlebois, Senior Director, Agri-Foods Analytics Lab, Dalhousie University, discusses the looming food crisis consumers face in Canada.

Charlebois talks about the impact of the war in Ukraine, why food prices are continuing to rise, the class action lawsuit against meat companies alleging price collusion, Statistics Canada deleting its food inflation base, and the need for grocers to embrace the idea of giving consumers more coupons.

Youtube video

The Video Interview Series by Retail Insider is available on YouTube.

Connect with Mario Toneguzzi, a veteran of the media industry for more than 40 years and named in 2021 a Top Ten Business Journalist in the world and the only Canadian – to learn how you can tell your story, share your message and amplify it to a wide audience. He is Senior National Business Journalist with Retail Insider and owner of Mario Toneguzzi Communications Inc. and can be reached at mdtoneguzzi@gmail.com

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Indigo Announces Coffee Concept as Replacement Tenant for Former Starbucks Locations: Interviews

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Chapters at Yorkdale
Chapters at Yorkdale - Photo by Dustin Fuhs

Calgary-based Good Earth Coffeehouse is set to open new locations in select Indigo stores across the country in the near future.

The first Good Earth Coffeehouse opened in 1991 in Calgary and the company currently operates over 40 locations in six Canadian provinces.

Nan Eskenazi

Founder Nan Eskenazi said Indigo is a good fit for the brand.

The departure of many Starbucks stores in the Canadian market in the past two years has opened the door for Good Earth expansion.

“It’s fantastic news. It’s been in the works for awhile but we’re just so glad to be able to have an announcement go out,” said Eskenazi. “About a year or so ago we made an announcement about evaluating locations that had been abandoned by one of our competitors.

Good Earth Coffeehouse Sunridge Mall (Image: Good Earth Coffeehouse)
Good Earth Coffeehouse Sunridge Mall (Image: Good Earth Coffeehouse)

“Really what we had done was take a good look at the coffee landscape and our brand and our brand’s strengths. For practical purposes, we really committed to doubling down on providing coffee house environments for communities to create places where community can gather in person and spend time together and the Indigo environments are just so well suited to that. The brand alignment is outstanding in terms of our values and our desire to be part of the community. I think that’s really at the core of it. The Indigo sites are just an excellent marriage for our brands.”

Eskenazi said Indigo has about 40 locations which are operating without a coffee shop, which is about half of Indigo’s sites. 

“We’re, roughly speaking, evaluating about half of those. We’re looking at a number of provinces across the country,” she said.

This partnership marks the start of Indigo’s intention to reimagine and convert its available café spaces, with a market by market, and sometimes store by store approach, offering customers regional relevance and supporting local businesses, it said.

Stores will remain open throughout the renovations to the café spaces. 

Former Starbucks at Yorkdale Shopping Centre (Image: Dustin Fuhs)

“We’re excited to partner with Good Earth Coffeehouse to bring their elevated experience to our customers,” said Peter Ruis, President, Indigo. “With aligned core values of quality, a commitment to sustainable practices, and bringing people together, it could not be a more natural fit. Good Earth prides itself in being a community coffeehouse with good food, and we’re thrilled to be able to offer our customers an opportunity to enjoy the space and connect with one another while they shop with us.”

For Good Earth, the company continues to expand its brand.

“The Indigo relationship is part of a larger plan to continue expanding our brand across Canada,” explained Eskenazi. “It will certainly be an important element to that as it helps us launch and build brand awareness in the Ontario market as an example.

“In addition to that, we’ve been awarded a couple of really wonderful sites within health care in Mississauga. That’s Mississauga Hospital and also the Credit Valley Hospital. We have a new site opening in the Calgary Courts Centre and we are opening on another university campus, the University of Northern BC in Prince George. So we’ve got some really nice locations coming up and obviously the theme on some of those is that we’re opening in what are considered non-traditional locations –  hospitals and universities and court houses as well as the retail opportunities that Indigo presents.”

Amsterdam-Based Custom Suit Brand ‘Atelier Munro’ to Open 2nd Global Storefront in Toronto Before Expanding Nationally

By
Craig Patterson
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Future Home of Atelier Munro at 19 Hazelton Avenue (Image: Craig Patterson)

Amsterdam-based custom suit brand Atelier Munro will open a standalone location this summer in Toronto’s Yorkville area. It will be only the second permanent standalone storefront for Atelier Munro globally following a location that opened in Amsterdam in November of last year. Following the opening of the Toronto location, a national rollout will see Atelier Munro open standalone locations in major markets with Calgary being the second target. 

The Toronto Atelier Munro location will be at 19 Hazelton Avenue in a beautiful historic townhouse that decades ago was converted to retail space. The 3,000 square foot showroom will span three levels and an additional 500 square foot basement space will be used for storage and back-of-house.

Lindsay Hepburn and Sandra-Marine Isautier of the brokerage Cresa represent Atelier Munro in Canada and negotiated the lease on behalf of the retailer. Jordan Karp and the team at Savills Canada acted on behalf of the landlord to lease the space formerly occupied by a bridal store. 

Each of the three retail levels will feature several fitting rooms and working desks. The main floor will feature a range of ready-to-wear — Atelier Munro has been expanding into various non-custom categories and accessories and other items will also be available. 

Click image for interactive Google Map
House of Atelier Munro Beethovenstraat 9, Amsterdam (Image: Atelier Munro)
House of Atelier Munro Beethovenstraat 9, Amsterdam (Image: Atelier Munro)
House of Atelier Munro Beethovenstraat 9, Amsterdam (Image: Atelier Munro)

Upstairs clients will be able to view a range of fabric swatches and be fitted for custom garments. The entry level for Atelier Munro suits is about $800 and prices go higher depending on materials used. A custom garment takes about four weeks to make. Shirts are priced between $160 and $300 typically. Custom footwear made in Italy will be available in a range of sizes and styles. 

Domenic Esposto

Atelier Munro was founded in 2007 by a group of men wanting to create customized apparel that was like made-to-measure only quicker, easier, less expensive, and more adaptable. Atelier Munro’s price point is higher than Vancouver-based Indochino and considerably less than the bespoke offerings at pricier retailers. Menswear retailer Harry Rosen introduced Atelier Munro to the Canadian market in 2016. 

Toronto-based Brand Experience Leader Domenic Esposto said that Atelier Munro is opening standalone stores in Canada to offer a full experience while offering the opportunity to showcase the brand’s ready-to-wear. The brand has grown in terms of products since its launching at Harry Rosen. Men will also have a place to gather and relax, rounding out the retail experience in the new Hazelton Avenue location. 

Future Home of Atelier Munro at 19 Hazelton Avenue (Image: Craig Patterson)

Already, Atelier Munro has opened temporary showroom spaces in Toronto and Calgary. The Toronto location is at flexible work space concept Spaces at 180 John Street where it has operated since last year. In Calgary, Atelier Munro has opened a pop-up at 333 11th Ave SW in the city’s downtown area. 

Esposto said that Atelier Munro will look to open more standalone locations in major Canadian cities. Calgary will be the next target city in Canada for Atelier Munro, with a space of about 2,000 square feet sought. ‘Character’ elements such as brick walls would be desirable Esposto said.

Atelier Munro is now hiring for its Toronto showroom that will be opening in a couple of months from now. Those interested can visit this website and apply.

We’ll follow up in June with photos when Atelier Munro opens its Hazelton Avenue storefront in Toronto. 

Indigenous-owned Retailer Nîkihk Opens Flagship Store in Downtown Saskatoon Mall [Photos]

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Nîkihk at Midtown (Image: Cushman Wakefield)

Indigenous-owned business Nîkihk has opened its first flagship store at the Midtown shopping centre in Saskatoon and the motivation for the company was driven after the death of Neil Sasakamoose’s father.

Fred Sasakamoose, one of the first Indigenous players in the National Hockey League, died in 2020 after the former Chicago Black Hawks forward had been hospitalized with COVID-19.

Neil Sasakamoose

Neil Sasakamoose, President & CEO of Nîkihk, said the company’s roots stem from the pandemic.

“When the pandemic first came to the Prairies, our bands couldn’t find any kind of hand sanitizer, any kind of household cleaner, there was a big panic . . . There were big fears. Our bands they couldn’t find any. There were restrictions and fights in the aisles of Superstores and grocery stores and local stores as everyone was buying everything out,” he said, adding the bands were locked down too at that time.

Nîkihk at Midtown (Image: Cushman Wakefield)

“It was born out of necessity. We went and made our own product. We went to a plant and started testing a concept, obtained this brand. The federal government through us purchased a whole bunch of household supply kits. There was a box of hand sanitizer, hand soap, common house cleaners we produced that were clean, they were green-friendly. We created a brand and mixed in some of our Indigenous Plains scents and colours into them like sweetgrass and sage and blueberries and Saskatoon berries. We came out with a brand and it exploded. 

“My father passed away from COVID and that motivated me personally. He was one of the first victims of COVID back in 2020. He missed the vaccines by two months. It motivated me to make sure that First Nation households had hand sanitizers, they had household cleaning, they had personal care. It’s a mix of both things. The market was set to go but I had a personal goal and I wanted to make sure that people were safe. My dad’s passing was one of the driving forces for me personally.”

In March 2020, Nîkihk, which translated from Plains Cree is “my home”, was created to help distribute household cleaning kits to combat the national shortage of sanitizing solutions on First Nations.

​Since then, it has sold over 75,000 cleaning kits, made headlines, and it began a retail journey with a physical presence in Saskatoon’s signature mall.

Nîkihk at Midtown (Image: Cushman Wakefield)

The venture is owned by several Saskatchewan First Nations. Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs is a tribal council that was formed in the spring of 2007 with the original first nations of Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation, Moosomin First Nation, Red Pheasant Cree Nation, Sweetgrass First Nation, and Stoney Knoll First Nation signing the Convention Act. Saulteaux First Nation joined in 2009 and Mosquito / Grizzly Bear’s Head / Lean Man First Nation in 2014.

Sasakamoose said the retail space blended the sanitizers and cleaning supplies with the work of local Indigenous artisans in the Battlefords area.

“We buy their products and we resell them. Get their brand out there. Their name. It’s been really good,” he said. “It’s been a good mix for us.” 

Linda Young, Specialty Leasing Manager, for Cornwall Centre in Regina and Midtown in Saskatoon, for Cushman & Wakefield, said since inception, Nîkihk has transformed from a store to a destination to include a feature wall of Nîkihk products, a Truth & Reconciliation, a “Every Child Matters” stairway and merchandise, local artisans featured showing their exquisite skill at beading and leather work, as well, a “Multi Cultural Corner” where people can learn and work with the community. 

The painting of the walls inside the space was completed by local Indigenous Artists. Nîkihk’s retail offering has grown to include cleaners such as personal care, pet care, laundry detergent and athletic wear cleansing.

Nîkihk at Midtown (Image: Nîkihk Facebook)

“The whole thing started at Midtown because I saw a commercial on TV on Global. It was just a local commercial. I thought I should contact these guys and we should partner. The timing was just so right with Truth & Reconciliation and Every Child Matters,” said Young. “That’s really how all this started.”

“And he’s got a terrific group that he works with. We started meeting and planning and it opened the third week of November of 2021.”

She said the store is located at the 1st Avenue entrance, the first store when people walk into the main entrance, across from a Starbucks.

“The placement is really fantastic. It’s about 2,800 square feet.”

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web For March 31st, 2022

By
Retail Insider
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Canadian Retail News From Around The Web

News at a Glance

Retail Insider is streamlining its Canadian retail news from around the web to include a handful of top news stories that can be viewed quickly during the day. Here are the top stories from the past 24 hours.

French Luxury Fragrance and Candle Brand ‘Diptyque’ Expanding Into Canadian Market with 1st Store

By
Craig Patterson
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Image: Diptyque

Upscale French fragrance and candle brand Diptyque is building its first standalone store at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre that will open within a few months. It’s part of a direct-to-consumer expansion for the brand which for years has been available in upscale multi-brand retailers. 

The Yorkdale Diptyque storefront will be in the mall’s new ‘luxury wing’ anchored by Louis Vuitton to the north and Furla and Nespresso at its south-end. Diptyque will join other nearby beauty brands including Aesop and a large Sephora store.

More Canadian Diptyque locations are expected to open with Jeff Berkowitz of Aurora Realty Consultants negotiating leases on behalf of the retailer. Ideal Diptyque retail spaces could be in malls and on streets with mall locations ideally being in the 600-700 square foot range while street front stores may occupy as much as 1,000 square feet.

Diptyque was founded in 1961 by interior designer Christiane Gautrot, theatre set designer Yves Coueslant, and Desmond Knox-Leet, a painter. The brand, which sells fragrances, candles & home, skincare, and home decor, has stores globally as well as distribution in upscale retailers. 

Photo: SpaceNK

Candles are typically priced in the $50-$100 range depending on size, with some more expensive ones approaching $500. Diptyque fragrances are typically well over $100 and a room spray was priced at $92 on a Canadian retailer’s website.

In the United States, Diptyque has more than 20 stores in major markets with a mix of street and mall stores in upscale locations. Some stores are on luxury streets while others are located a bit off the beaten path in trendy places close to affluent population areas. 

The Diptyque brand was introduced to Canada via wholesale channels, with retailers such as Holt Renfrew, Nordstrom, and Saks Fifth Avenue carrying the brand in Canadian stores. The multi-brand retailers are expected to retain distribution despite the direct-to-consumer brick-and-mortar expansion.

We’ll follow up on this story when the Yorkdale store opens.

Consumer Demand for Greater Flexibility and Options Leading to Increasing Retail Innovation

By
Sean Tarry
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Of the many changes and forced evolutions that have been precipitated by impacts of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the digitization of the world around will certainly be recognized as one of the most significant. It’s changed the way people everywhere consume and share information and the methods by which we communicate and engage with one another. Through the retail lens, it’s served to transform consumer preferences concerning the ways they interact and shop with their favourite brands, leading to a recent and thoroughly documented explosion in ecommerce sales for merchants across the country. In short, the digitization of the industry, which continues unabated, has gone a long way toward altering and expanding the retail ecosystem, challenging retailers’ capacity to deliver the service and experience that customers are increasingly expecting. In fact, according to Katie Swett, eCommerce Product Lead at Square, it’s an evolution that’s prompting merchants throughout the industry to reassess the traditional retail model and adapt in order to provide the Canadian consumer with the options they seek.

“The COVID-19 global pandemic has really changed the way retail functions,” says Swett. “It shifted consumer behaviour, accelerating their adoption of online channels, providing many who were relatively unfamiliar with ecommerce with a crash course, flattening the technological learning curve as they discovered the capabilities, ease and convenience of online retail. It’s changed their perception of the shopping journey, increasing their expectations concerning flexibility with respect to the way they pay for purchases as well as the ways in which their orders are fulfilled. It’s forcing many retailers to examine and assess how they service their customers, adapting in ways they may not have previously been accustomed to, developing new fulfillment methods like local delivery and introducing flexible payment options like ‘buy now, pay later’ in order to meet those increasing needs. These developments are allowing retailers everywhere to blur the in-person and online worlds into a singular and digitally-enabled experience. Two-day shipping is great. But two-hour pickup might be even better.”

Swett goes on to explain that, along with retailers’ need to develop and deliver a seamless omnichannel experience, which includes options like purchasing online and picking up in-store, ordering online for home delivery and curbside pickup, there are a number of other digital trends that have been brought about by the pandemic. She says that with greater flexibility and options comes increased adoption of new modes and channels and a deeper exploration by the consumer of the options available to them. As a result, and perhaps a by-product of the current digital revolution, people are beginning to increasingly leverage their mobile phones as a means to make purchases at checkout. It’s a trend that’s been developing for some time, recognizes Swett, but one that she believes is approaching a tipping point within the industry.

“One of the biggest shifts in purchasing preferences that we’ve experienced over the past couple of years is the Canadian consumers’ willingness to use their phones for contactless payments,” she asserts. “In fact, many customers are no longer carrying a physical wallet with the assumption that they can use their digital wallet to complete a transaction. It’s leading retailers to place an even greater emphasis on providing their customers with a seamless mobile phone experience in order to help them drive online sales. Merchants are much more aware of the fact that online ordering is supported by a great mobile phone experience that integrates and blends seamlessly into the overall shopping experience that they offer their consumers. Going forward, it’s going to be critical for retailers across the country to ensure that they develop a mobile-driven approach to commerce in order to meet this growing consumer preference.”

Photo: Square

Owning retail success

As a consequence of enhanced online sales and the plethora of opportunities presented to retailers online, Swett says that it’s important for those entering into the vastness of ecommerce to own their success. It might seem easy to some to simply put product online with the help of a third-party marketplace provider. Afterall, there are numerous examples and case studies detailing the growth and success that many retailers have experienced by virtue of doing so. However, Swett warns that, despite these instances, there is a lot that merchants are giving up when they make the decision to sell through these channels.

“It’s incredibly important today, in light of the digital opportunities available to those operating within the industry, for merchants to own their own success through ownership of their own direct digital order channels,” she says. “Similar to what happened in the airline and hospitality industry years ago, retailers are quickly recognizing this. Owning their own channels through which they sell to their customers provides them with much better control of their margins and greater control and associated opportunities related to the ways in which they market their businesses. But, most importantly, by owning their own selling channels, they own their relationships with customers, allowing them to better understand their needs and build a strong connection to the brand.”

Seamless reordering

Another trend that’s on the rise, according to Swett, is the rapid development of loyalty programs, rewards and offers by retailers in efforts to capture repeat engagement with consumers. Driven by a combination of increased competition for the consumer’s spend and an expanding retail ecosystem that offers an ever-increasing number of ways by which consumers can find the product they’re looking for, retailers are increasingly looking to loyalty programs and rewards as a way to differentiate their brands. And, although Swett recognizes this fact, she says that offering the consumer a seamless reordering experience is critical in supporting the objective of these marketing efforts.

“Many businesses understand that acquiring new customers is exponentially more difficult and expensive than engaging with existing customers,” she says. “As a result, many merchants have decided to direct a lot of their resources and efforts toward ensuring a seamless reordering experience, making repeat purchases as easy and convenient as possible. It’s essential for any merchant who puts in the time, effort and resources to develop these loyalty programs and incentives to support them with a digital purchasing experience that brings them back in conjunction with great rewards and offers.”

Realizing full retail potential 

To help merchants operating across the country compete in an increasingly digitized world, Square – one of North America’s leading financial services and digital payments providers – offers a range of software and hardware solutions that enable clients to turn their operations into profitable online businesses. Swett acknowledges how intimidating a foray into the online world might seem to many small- and medium-sized merchants and understands the hesitance in investing time and resources into a complex venture with a plethora of moving parts. However, she explains that it’s with this understanding in mind that drives Square and the work that it does on behalf of clients, helping them achieve the full potential of their businesses.

“There are many challenges related to managing a merchants’ online business. However, the two challenges that we focus on helping them solve for is in lowering the associated costs as well as filling in the knowledge gap with respect to ecommerce and digital channels. Cost has historically been very prohibitive for merchants who are just getting started with low margins. At Square, we are committed to lowering that barrier, offering merchants a free Square Online option. With this product, they pay only when they make a sale and can get up and running fast. With respect to knowledge, much of our effort is focused on reducing this barrier by not only developing and setting up these online experiences, but by also helping merchants identify the opportunities that are available to them. There is so much potential available to small- and medium-sized businesses as a result of the digital transformation that we’re experiencing. We want to help them realize it in full.”

For information concerning the ways Square and its suite of commerce solutions can help your business optimize opportunities for success and growth in an increasingly digitized world, visit https://squareup.com/ca/en

*Retail Insider partnered with Square for this content.

Vince Guzzo Video Interview: The Current State of His Businesses and Predictions of Mass Retail Closures in Canada

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Vince Guzzo Video Interview: The Current State of His Businesses and Predictions of Mass Retail Closures in Canada

Vince Guzzo, a well-known Canadian entrepreneur and judge on the Dragons’ Den TV show, discusses the economic pain entrepreneurs have faced during the pandemic and what they need to do to survive. He starts off discussing challenges with his own businesses including theatres, consumer goods and real estate and then predicts that many businesses will close in Canada this year and discusses how interest rate increases will further affect both businesses and consumers.

Youtube video

The Video Interview Series by Retail Insider is available on YouTube.

Connect with Mario Toneguzzi, a veteran of the media industry for more than 40 years and named in 2021 a Top Ten Business Journalist in the world and the only Canadian – to learn how you can tell your story, share your message and amplify it to a wide audience. He is Senior National Business Journalist with Retail Insider and owner of Mario Toneguzzi Communications Inc. and can be reached at mdtoneguzzi@gmail.com

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