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Walmart Adding MediSpas to Canadian Stores with Jack Nathan Partnership

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Exterior of Walmart Store. Photo: Walmart
Exterior of Walmart Store. Photo: Walmart

Jack Nathan Health, operating in Walmart stores across Canada, is expanding the types of services that their medical practitioners can offer patients with the recent acquisition of two Redeem MediSpa clinics.

MediSpa offers a complete range of both surgical and non-surgical treatments for conditions such as Botox, migraines, laser therapy, anti-aging, face and body skin tightening, PRP therapies, hair loss, and joint pain.

“This transaction is in lock-step with Jack Nathan Health’s mission to provide patients with accessible, convenient and quality healthcare by expanding the range of services and treatment options available to both practitioners and patients,” said George Bakart, CEO and Chairman of Jack Nathan Health, which operates in 76 Walmart Canada locations.

“Bringing MediSpa under the Jack Nathan Health banner will drive both immediate revenue and the long-term growth trajectory as we work first to integrate these two locations and then open additional locations in the coming months.”

Redeem MediSpa inside a Walmart Canada. Photo: Walmart
Redeem MediSpa inside a Walmart Canada. Photo: Walmart

The first two locations are in southern Ontario — inside JNH medical walk-in clinics in Maple (Vaughan) and Brampton.

The integration of MediSpa will be led by Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Glenn Copeland, who brings expertise in building and leading multidisciplinary healthcare operations to this initiative.

“The acquisition of MediSpa provides a unique opportunity to further entrench Jack Nathan Health as a full-service provider of quality services, deepening our ability to close the circle of care for each patient by attending to their unique needs,” said Copeland. “I look forward to driving this integration forward as we expand our range of services, including the expansion of our digital footprint through the addition of an e-commerce platform and retail product offerings.”

Jack Nathan Health was established in 2006 and continues to expand its international footprint, delivering state-of-the-art, turn-key medical centres in 76 Walmart locations across Canada including British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, as well as 11 locations in Mexico.

Sam Hamam, Senior Director of Licensees for Walmart Canada, said the retailer is “excited about the potential to partner with Jack Nathan Health to expand their services to include MediSpa to help our customers live better”.

Barakat said one of Walmart’s key demographics is the aging population with one in four people being over the age of 65 within 10 years.

“So healthcare, notwithstanding Jack Nathan Health, is a prime directive of I believe all retailers, not just Walmart,” he said.

“We thought it would be an excellent alignment considering MediSpas are moving more to provider care or provider supervision. So for us coming out of COVID, notwithstanding where the world is going, we believe that because we have the right doctors in place and the MediSpas within our medical locations this would be an excellent opportunity for us to complete that circle of healthcare or add to that circle of healthcare and potentially taking care of patients through MediSpa from the outside in.

Jack Nathan MediSpa in the Walmart Supercentre in Thornhill. Photo: Peterborough Examiner
Jack Nathan MediSpa in the Walmart Supercentre in Thornhill. Photo: Peterborough Examiner

“MediSpa provides surgical and non-surgical treatments, it expands the stickiness of Jack Nathan Health clients as we’re able to offer expanded service offerings relevant to their wellbeing, potentially to help them live their best lives. We thought this was a very strategic acquisition to expand forward. In the next 12 to 18 months we’ve already put in plans to open eight new locations for MediSpa and I believe that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I can see MediSpa expanding into most of our footprint.”

Barakat said Jack Nathan Health locations range in size from 1,500 square feet to the location in Vaughan that is 8,200 square feet.

He said the company believes it is going to revolutionize healthcare by providing a patient first experience both in-clinic and virtually.

“We approached healthcare, in partnership with Walmart, of bringing the clinic to the patient. Now we’ve evolved that into a digital experience to complement our brick and mortar experience. We keep that always at the top of mind — how can we improve better patient outcomes, always putting front and centre the patient first. And more importantly moving forward, how do we further co-locate specialist services to complement our physician services so that we can help everybody nationally and internationally — and their families — live their best lives by providing availability in the community for healthcare through Jack Nathan Health.”

Barakat said the company is looking at several locations in Canada for the expansion of Jack Nathan Health.

“We’re looking at quite a few locations for Walmart Mexico. We received another 50 locations for Walmart Mexico. We have a couple of locations already for this year for Walmart Canada. We believe that we’re going to be expanding our footprint quite rapidly within Canada as well.”

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web For March 1, 2021

By
Retail Insider
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Canadian Retail News From Around The Web

Top Stories: National

Central/Eastern Canada News

Western Canada News

Special Edition 28: Experts Peter Woolford and Stephen O’Keefe on How Retail is Changing and Where it’s Going

By
Retail Insider
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RI The Weekly SE28

An off-schedule podcast discussion with Peter Woolford (President of Clairmark Consulting Ltd.) and Stephen O’Keefe (President of Bottom Line Matters). Craig, Peter and Stephen discuss the retail awakening — consumers are changing and retailers need to adapt.

Interview Details: 

The Weekly podcast by Retail Insider Canada is available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

Subscribe, Rate, and Review our Retail Insider Podcast!

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Drop us a line at Craig@Retail-Insider.com. You can also rate us in Apple Podcasts or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

Cadillac Fairview Launches 1st of-its-Kind Easy Return System for Shoppers at Mall Retailers

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Interior of CF Toronto Eaton Centre
Interior of CF Toronto Eaton Centre

Canadian shopping centre owner Cadillac Fairview continues to find ways to enhance customer experience during the COVID-19 pandemic with the latest being the launch of a new service for returns of online and in-store purchases.

It has partnered with ReturnBear to offer an improved product return experience for customers across the country with what is being called a first-of-its-kind experience — offering the ability to return items from a number of retailers at once, either at a single drop-off location at a CF shopping centre or shipped back together in a single box to a ReturnBear processing centre.

Jose Ribau, Executive Vice President, Digital & Innovation of Cadillac Fairview, said the company is trying to make the shopping experience more seamless.

Jose Ribau
Jose Ribau

“As customers have purchased more online during the pandemic one of the pain points that we have been noticing and hearing from our customers is returns and the sheer number of returns that they have to manage,” he said.

“ReturnBear specializes in consolidated reverse logistics which is basically handling returns on behalf of retailers and allowing for a customer to either ship their returns directly or drop them off at a location and essentially remove that pain point from having to worry about that themselves.”

The app for the service also has a plug in for Shopify.

“Much like all of our efforts in helping retailers recover we decided that this is not just available to retailers that are members and our tenants of our properties. But we also believe that third party sellers, customers who have websites who sell directly on Shopify to consumers directly, these are small and medium size businesses who have to deal with returns. We’re basically saying we can bring scale,” said Ribau.

Cadillac Fairview/ReturnBear
Cadillac Fairview/ReturnBear

“If a customer instead of them worrying about shipping labels, if they want to drop them off at the kiosk we’ll be launching that in the coming months and they’ll be able to drop them off. So it’s also available for direct-to-consumer brands. And you might ask why would we do that? We’re Cadillac Fairview, we’re in the business of real estate. The reality is some of those brands may end up benefiting from having a physical presence some day and we want to help them succeed. So if they get to know us and they get to trust the products that we partner to deliver, we hope they will be successful and grow and ultimately if they need a store then we want them to consider us.”

Sal Iacono, EVP of Operations, Cadillac Fairview, said the company is helping alleviate the costs associated with returns.

Sal Iacono
Sal Iacono

“At CF we’re always looking to offer solutions that bridge the physical and digital worlds to make the customer experience better, and we are thrilled to bring this service forward as a way to help retailers based at our properties and beyond,” he said.

According to a recent ReturnBear Canadian shopper survey, over 75 percent of Canadian shoppers would prefer a one-stop, multi-retailer location that provides on-the-spot refunds versus going to the post office to ship back individual returns.

The service has now launched with a mail-in option, in which customers can combine returns from participating retailers into a single shipment to a nearby ReturnBear hub, where returns are batch-processed on behalf of retailers at a lower cost than their existing practices. Later this year, ReturnBear will launch in-mall drop-off locations at CF centres, eliminating the need for customers to pack and ship returns, and providing quicker refunds. Consolidating returns has the added benefit of reducing the environmental footprint of individual shipments, improving the sustainability of ecommerce.

“We saw an unmet need in the Canadian market to help retailers and Direct to Consumer brands ease the pressure of product returns, while improving their reverse logistics operations,” said Luke Chamberlin, GM at ReturnBear. “Our partnership with CF provides a unique opportunity to begin offering this service to both physical mall retailers, as well as ecommerce brands set up on the Shopify platform through our free plug-in.”

With ReturnBear retailers can:

  • Execute their return policies consistent with existing in-store and ecommerce practices;
  • Access returns analytics to help them identify patterns and improvement opportunities;
  • Reduce reverse shipping costs by receiving batch shipments of resellable merchandise back to stores or distribution centres; and
  • Provide customers with faster refunds and a painless process that will keep them coming back

CF plans to place ReturnBear kiosks throughout CF properties to help facilitate convenient returns while also helping retailers reduce their reverse logistics costs and operational challenges.

“In a year of unforeseen retail challenges, CF has introduced several technology-enabled services focused on delivering innovative, safe and efficient consumer-centric solutions to drive retailer support; including the personalized product discovery app LiVE by CF, virtual queuing tool CF Guest List, food ordering portal CF Eats; and now, a more simplified returns service with ReturnBear,” said Ribau.

“We’re trying to help both on the discovery and ultimately after the sale as well. We’re trying to be as close as we can be to what Amazon does for all of their electronic store fronts, we’re trying to do for the physical store fronts. Improve the experience from end to end. Now we’re talking about returns. So when you stitch this all together there’s an interesting narrative there about services to help remove friction,” he added.

Private COVID-19 PCR Testing Arrives at Small-Town Alberta Pharmacies in Under-Serviced Areas

By
Patricia Viscount
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Exterior of Sandstone Pharmacy in Innisfail, Alberta. Photo: Sandstone Pharmacy Facebook
Exterior of Sandstone Pharmacy in Innisfail, Alberta. Photo: Sandstone Pharmacy Facebook

Two Alberta-based companies have partnered to roll out the first-of-its-kind local COVID-19  polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing.

Sandstone Pharmacies is joining forces with CardiAi™, developer of the saliva-based, Canadian-made CoviLamp™ PCR test to provide easy, private, accurate COVID-19 testing across southern Alberta. Saliva samples will be taken at each pharmacy location and sent to the CardiAi™ labs in Calgary.

“Our collaboration with CardiAi™ ensures our PCR test is made available to as many Albertans as possible,” said Marco Casagrande, Vice President, Sandstone Pharmacies. “Rural markets are often undercapitalized in terms of getting access to these kinds of resources.”

Marco Casagrande
Marco Casagrande

The tests have been available in their 20 pharmacy locations across the province since February 9.

In order to receive the test, patients must:

  • Be asymptomatic (showing no symptoms)
  • It’s recommended people call the store to confirm the test and the timeline that will work for their needs. Check for the location nearest you
  • Make an appointment directly through the pharmacy’s online tool. When registering, the patient information (including email for results and documentation) is gathered
  • Pay the $149 +GST fee, which includes the required documentation for work or travel purposes

Included in the various locations are smaller communities like Medicine Hat, Nanton, Innisfail, and Blackfalds that now have convenient local access to quick, easy and accurate testing. You can also find them in the Calgary International Airport and smaller towns in the Calgary area, like Bragg Creek and Langdon.

Sandstone Pharmacies
Sandstone Pharmacies

This allows people to get tested in their own area, by their local pharmacist. And they are notified of their result, via encrypted email with the documentation, in as short a timeframe as 4 hours. Letting those who receive a negative test result return to work, and their lives, with a minimal amount of disturbance.

Sandstone Pharmacies focuses on offering other forms of point-of-care testing, like the PCR test, says Casagrande, so people in smaller towns save time and don’t have to travel. While he describes the pace of testing now as “moderate”, Casagrande predicts that if travel restrictions ease later in the year and destination countries require a negative test, patients might need to plan to ensure they get tested in time.

“We understand implicitly people’s need to have trusted local facilities where they can get friendly professional advice as well as the medical and healthcare products they need,” Casagrande explained. “With the global pandemic crisis, this has become more important than ever. We’re very pleased to be partnering with one of Canada’s most exciting healthcare innovators, CardiAi™, ensuring all Albertans have a quick and convenient way to get accurately tested.”

BRIEF: Golden Goose Opens 1st Store, David Rocco Opening Yorkville Wine Bar

By
Retail Insider
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Retail Insider Brief
Retail Insider Brief

Golden Goose Opens Stunning 1st Canadian Store

Upscale Italian fashion brand Golden Goose, known particularly for its pricey sneakers, has unveiled its first standalone Canadian store at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre. More locations could open in Canada as the brand expands its operations in North America.

The Toronto store will open to the public when pandemic lockdowns are lifted, which may happen on Monday, March 8.

The 1,600-square-foot Yorkdale Golden Goose store’s interior is immersed in metallic silver — the walls, floors, and ceilings are entirely covered with aluminium foil which Golden Goose says brings “energy and brightness to the interior while maintaining the hand-made artisanal touch that defines the brand”. Fixtures are made of galvanized steel and super mirror stainless steel.

The retail space focuses on Golden Goose’s most iconic sneakers with a full collection for women, men, and children, as well as accessories and small leather goods which are only available in selected stores and not available elsewhere in Toronto.

The retail experience is unique as well. When a purchase is made, customers are invited to capture the moment of their Golden purchase with a personalized Polaroid that becomes a “souvenir embodying the beginning of their journey together with Golden Goose, a way to feel even more part of the Golden Family and its community of lovers,” according to the company.

Globally, Golden Goose operates about 120 stores in major markets. The brand was founded in Venice, Italy in the year 2000 by Alessandro Gallo and Francesca Rinaldo. The company was owned by Italian fund DGPA SGR between 2013 and earlier this year when Golden Goose was sold to investment firm Permira. The deal closed in June and Permira is now spearheading a direct-to-consumer store expansion which launched under the previous owner.

More Golden Goose stores could open in Canada. Given the number of locations in Asia, the Vancouver market could very well become home to a Golden Goose retail store. Toronto’s Bloor-Yorkville area, which continues to add new luxury brand stores, could be another target. Given that Golden Goose has opened stores in markets such as Nashville, there is a possibility that the brand could eventually open mall-based stores in markets such as Edmonton and Calgary and the Montreal market might also support at least one Golden Goose storefront. In Canada, Golden Goose footwear is available at various upscale retailers including Holt Renfrew and Hudson’s Bay.

Exterior of soon-to-beDavid Rocco Bar Aperitivo in Yorkville. Photo: Craig Patterson
Exterior of soon-to-be ‘David Rocco Bar Aperitivo’ in Yorkville. Photo: Craig Patterson

David Rocco to Open Upscale Yorkville Wine Bar

A signal that the future will again be social, Toronto-based food celebrity David Rocco is opening a wine bar on Cumberland Street in Yorkville. It will be called ‘David Rocco Bar Aperitivo’ and will open this spring at 95 Cumberland Street in a retail space formerly occupied by HÖM Cafe.

David Rocco
David Rocco

A range of Italian wines, Prosecco, Champaign, and mixed drinks will be available, as will a tapas-stye menu featuring small portions. “Everyone knows what they’re getting,” said Rocco during a discussion with Retail Insider about the concept. A mini wine shop will sell bottles as well, and Rocco has his own wine label. The vibe in the space will be intimate with high-top tables. The front-of-house space will span about 575 square feet with a capacity of about 25 seats. The total leased space is about 1,200 square feet at street level facing the recently-completed 88 Cumberland Street condominium apartment tower.

Rocco said that the interior will impress visitors, saying that “people will be shocked” in what he said would be “quite spectacular with some surprises”. The overall design of the space will be inspired by the culmination of Rocco’s travels to Italy and other passions.

He’s still shooting new TV shows during the pandemic, and Rocco said that he’s excited to open a large restaurant, called David Rocco’s Dolce Vita, at the KLCC Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Rocco is a celebrity chef who expanded his business to become an executive producer, best-selling author and host of several internationally syndicated TV series. Acclaimed Toronto restaurant Oretta on King Street West is among Rocco’s other business ventures.

Screenshot of Maison Birks website showcasing its range of TUDOR watches fro sale.
Screenshot of Maison Birks website showcasing its range of TUDOR watches fro sale.

Maison Birks Expands E-Commerce Platform to Include TUDOR

Iconic Montreal-based jeweller Maison Birks has expanded its e-commerce platform, MaisonBirks.com, to include luxury watch brand Tudor for the first time.

The award-winning Swiss-made watch brand is already available at three Birks in Canada and the brand is now available for purchase through MaisonBirks.com.

This expanded online offering comes as Maison Birks announces the reopening of boutiques in Quebec and Ontario following the lessening of restrictions imposed by the Quebec and Ontario provincial governments as a result of COVID-19. Following the guidelines put in place by the provincial governments, the following boutiques have reopened on the indicated dates:

Quebec – February 8th: Maison Birks downtown Montreal, CF Carrefour Laval, Quartier Dix30, Place Ste-Foy, and CF Fairview Pointe-Claire

Ontario – February 16th: Maison Birks CF Rideau Centre, Bayshore Centre, Oshawa Centre, and Mapleview

Clients can continue to make arrangements for storefront pickup through Maison Birks’ Concierge Service by phone at +1 (855) 873-7373 and email at info@birks.com. Select boutiques are also offering virtual appointments, where clients can receive elevated service through video chat. Virtual appointments can be scheduled online at https://www.maisonbirks.com/en/virtual-appointment. Clients can continue to shop online 24/7 at MaisonBirks.com and benefit from complimentary shipping across Canada.

Victoria's Secret at Yorkdale Shopping Centre. Photo: Victoria's Secret
Victoria’s Secret at Yorkdale Shopping Centre. Photo: Victoria’s Secret

Victoria’s Secret to Close More Canadian Stores

US parent company L Brands says that it will be closing more Victoria’s Secret stores in Canada this year as the retailer adjusts its footprint in North America. Between 30 and 50 of Victoria’s Secret’s stores will shut in Canada and the US this year and the number of Canadian locations has not yet been announced.

Victoria’s Secret closed a whopping 241 stores in North America in 2020 reducing its store count to 848 locations from more than 1,100 a year earlier. Last year at least 15 locations closed in Canada following a substantial number that also shut in 2019, leaving Victoria’s Secret with just 23 storefronts in Canada.

We reported last year that 13 of Victoria’s Secret’s then 38 Canadian stores would be shuttering, representing about 35% of its store fleet. Some are now questioning if Victoria’s Secret might shut all of its Canadian stores, given the momentum of closings over the past two years as well as the retailer’s decreasing performance. In an interview about a year ago, Darryl Schmidt, Vice President of Retail Leasing in the Western Portfolio Office of mall operator Cadillac Fairview, said, “For the last 24 to 28 months we’ve seen deep double-digit comp sales declines in Victoria’s Secret across the entire portfolio from British Columbia all the way to the Maritimes. As we got closer to some of the expirees it was becoming apparent that there was going to be a disconnect between their rental expectations and our rental expectations given their declining sales performance”.

International Women’s Day cartoon

Recent GoDaddy Survey Reveals Driving Force Behind Female Entrepreneurship

A recent survey conducted by GoDaddy Canada revealed that passion is the driving force behind millennial women starting their own small business.

Ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, the web hosting company interviewed women entrepreneurs to get a sense of what it’s like to be a female small business owner in Canada. The survey found:

  • The retail industry was the third most popular business owned by women entrepreneurs
  • Younger women are more likely to actively recruit and employ women (62%)
  • Younger women are much more likely to actively seek out other women-owned businesses when looking for products/services
  • Millennial women are four times more likely to raise capital through angel investors or venture capitalists than older generations
  • Nearly a third of women business owners are a member of a minority ethnic group
  • The majority (68% ) of Canadian women entrepreneurs feel a strong sense of representation in their business industry
  • Passion is the driving force behind millennial women starting their own small business while older women identify flexibility as their top motivator
  • Just over half (51%) of women launch their business full time while slightly less than half launch it as a side hustle when they begin

Read More Retail Insider Briefs:

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web For February 26, 2021

By
Retail Insider
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Canadian Retail News From Around The Web

Top Stories: National

Central/Eastern Canada News

Western Canada News

Aesop Expanding Canadian Store Operations with Multiple Storefronts Over 12 Months

By
Craig Patterson
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Exterior of Aesop store on Toronto's Queen Street West. Image: Aesop
Exterior of Aesop store on Toronto's Queen Street West. Image: Aesop

Upscale Australian skin care brand Aesop is continuing with its standalone store expansion in Canada this year with multiple locations in two major markets. The new stores will join the 12 other Canadian standalone locations that have opened since 2015, as well as concessions and stockists in multi-brand retailers.

One Toronto storefront, spanning about 780 square feet, will open following pandemic lockdowns at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre. An aluminium tile façade is said to have been inspired by the work of Canadian-born abstract expressionist painter Agnes Martin. A mill-finish aluminium structure over the entrance will be left bare to reduce overall waste said the company. Shelves and cabinets will be clad in a thin layer of locally sourced Canadian bird’s eye maple, contrasting the warmth of wood with a cool metallic sheen. A subdued matte floor will contrast will other elements.

The Yorkdale boutique is located in an up-and-coming luxury wing in the centre anchored at the north end by a recently-opened Louis Vuitton store. Other new nearby luxury retailers include Thom Browne and Golden Goose, with more luxury brands set to join them including a European brand by a Belgian designer that is said to be in lease negotiations.

Plans were in place in 2015 for Aesop to potentially open a storefront in the Nordstrom anchored wing at Yorkdale that opened in the fall of 2016, though a deal was never concluded.

Map of Yorkdale Shopping Centre showing location of the new Aesop store.
Map of Yorkdale Shopping Centre showing location of the new Aesop store.

In December, Aesop completed a new storefront in affluent midtown Toronto at 2579 Yonge Street — the physical store has yet to open to the public due to pandemic lockdowns which could possibly be lifted on March 8. The store features seven staggered cabinets simulating an internal streetscape of walnut joinery and reflective brass panels. A terracotta basin offers an opportunity to explore products first-hand. The pre-existing herringbone floor in the space was stained to harmonize with the walnut timber shelves — a WANT Apothecary storefront formerly occupied the space. The location is about a block south of the Sporting Life flagship on Yonge Street near wealthy neighbourhoods including Lawrence Park.

In Toronto as well, Aesop recently leased a 980-square-foot street front store at 94 Cumberland Street in Toronto’s Bloor-Yorkville area. Aesop’s doorway will face onto Bellair Street next to a corner Tokyo Smoke storefront, both at the base of the recently completed Minto Yorkville Park condominium tower. Aesop will feature 18-foot ceilings and a listing on Loopnet indicated that length of a lease at 94 Cumberland, owned by Prowinko, were for five years terms.

Hilary Kellar-Parsons of Aurora Realty Consultants negotiated all three Toronto leases. CBRE’s Downtown Toronto Urban Retail Team, represented Prowinko at 94 Cumberland, acting on behalf of the landlord for this location. The 94 Cumberland Street podium is now 100% leased according to CBRE’s Arlin Markowitz after a third retail space was leased earlier this week.

Two Vancouver-area storefronts for Aesop are said to be under negotiation with more details to follow. Mario Negris and Martin Moriarty of CBRE Vancouver’s Urban Properties Group are a point of contact.

Aesop’s penetration of the Canadian market is becoming substantial, including concessions and distribution in multi-brand retailers. At Yorkdale and on Bloor Street, Aesop already has a presence on the beauty floors of Holt Renfrew stores.

Leased space on 94 Cumberland Street. Photo: Craig Patterson
Leased space on 94 Cumberland Street. Photo: Craig Patterson

Aesop entered the Canadian market in the summer of 2015 with its first location in Vancouver. The company subsequently expanded into the Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Calgary markets by opening standalone stores.

The first Vancouver store opened at 19 Water Street in the city’s Gastown area in 2015 in a 615 square foot space. Other locations that followed it include at 3583 Main Street in an up-and-coming area of the city as well as at 2072 W. 4th Avenue in Kitsilano. Sources say two more Vancouver lease deals are currently being negotiated.

Aesop’s first Toronto store opened shortly after the Vancouver Gastown store in 2015 at 880 Queen Street West in the city’s trendy ‘West Queen West’ area. Aesop’s second Toronto store opened at 1116 Yonge Street in the wealthy Rosedale area. In 2018, Aesop opened its first mall-based store in Canada at CF Toronto Eaton Centre.

The Montreal market is home to four Aesop storefronts, the first of which opened in 2016. That includes locations at 4968 Sherbrooke Street West in Westmount, 2493 Rue Notre Dame in Petite Bourgogne, Old Montreal at 239 Rue Saint-Paul W, and Mile End at 23 St. Viateur West.

Aesop also recently expanded into the Ottawa market with a store at CF Rideau Centre, as well as in Calgary at CF Chinook Centre. Sources say that discussions for a West Edmonton Mall location were also on the table.

The brand is also carried in Canada at Holt Renfrew, Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue. Aesop is expected to maintain its presence in multi-brand retailers, given the clustering in department store beauty departments. Aesop competes with a wide range of beauty brands and in Toronto, it’s Bloor-Yorkville store will be a stone’s throw from Canadian beauty brand Deciem on Bellair Street.

Aesop was founded in 1987 in Melbourne by hairdresser Dennis Paphitis. Product packaging is simple, and its quality is considered to be exceptional. It sources plant-based and laboratory-made ingredients, and uses only those with a proven record of safety and efficacy. It operates free-standing ‘signature stores’ as well as wholesale operations in a variety of retailers, high-end department stores as well as in smaller independents.

Canadian Retail 2020 Winners and Losers: Ed Strapagiel Analysis

By
Ed Strapagiel
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Exterior of The Shops At Aura which is currently in the process of major change. Photo: Dustin Fuhs
Exterior of The Shops At Aura which is currently in the process of a major change. Photo: Dustin Fuhs

The latest retail sales numbers from Statistics Canada were for December 2020, thus rounding out the year. But it wasn’t a good year, as Canadian retail sales declined 1.3% in 2020. A summary of Canadian retail sales growth over the last few years is as follows:

Retail sales growth in 2020 was the lowest since 2009, when a decline of 2.9% was recorded during the “Great Recession”. Different retail sectors had uneven results. Food & Drug led the way with a record high 8.8% retail sales growth in 2020, while Store Merchandise eked out a 1.0% gain, and the Automotive & Related sector had an exceptionally poor year with sales down 11.3%. The relative fortunes of Canadian retailers have been rearranged, as some retailer types had big sales gains while others had huge declines.

Total Canadian retail sales were up 5.7% year-over-year in Q4 2020. Due to the steep declines in Q2 however, the underlying 12 month trend (green line in the chart) is still in negative territory. It’s unlikely that this will improve much in the short term, due to renewed lockdowns and other anti-COVID measures put in place going into 2021. Hopefully, retailers are now better versed in sales tactics such as online marketing, home delivery and curbside pickup.

Food & Drug

Retail sales at Food & Drug stores were up a record-breaking 11.5% year-over-year in Q4 2020. The 3 month sales growth trend (orange line in the chart) is hovering at historically high levels, and the underlying 12 month trend (green line) has taken off like a rocket. This is seldom seen in the Food & Drug sector where trends tend to be relatively modest and steady.

Supermarkets & other grocery stores are enjoying significant retail sales increases, up 12.3% year-over-year in Q4 2020 and up 11.7% for the year. Convenience stores and specialty food stores also recorded double digit retail sales increases in Q4.

Health & personal care stores had a slow start to the year but are now bouncing back with a vengeance. Although their gain for 2020 overall was only 4.2%, their retail sales were up 12.4% in Q4 alone.

Store Merchandise

Store Merchandise went for a roller coaster ride in 2020. Retail sales were down 12.4% year-over-year in Q2, but that has since recovered to a gain of 7.6% in Q4. The sector ended 2020 with a modest 1.0% gain for the year overall.

Both the 3 month retail sales trend and the underlying 12 month trend improved significantly in the second half of 2020. These positive developments may not continue into 2021 however, due to renewed lockdowns, shutdowns and other anti-COVID shopping restrictions.

A number of retailer types had a particularly strong Q4, including building material & garden equipment/supplies dealers (up 24.3%), miscellaneous store retailers, which includes cannabis retailers (up 17.6%), electronics & appliance stores (up 15.8%), and furniture & home furnishings stores (up 14.8%).

On the other hand, clothing and accessories stores remain a disaster area. Their retail sales were down 18.5% year-over-year in Q4, and down a whopping 26.8% for 2020 overall.

The Automotive & Related sector’s retail sales were devastated in Q2 2020 but have since backed away from the brink. Nevertheless, conditions remain grim. Retail sales declined 1.4% year-over-year in Q4 and sector sales were down 11.3% for 2020 overall.

Automobile dealers did manage a 2.7% increase in Q4 2020, but were still down 11.0% for the year in total. A small but bright spot is with other motor vehicle dealers, where Q4 retail sales rose 33.5% year-over-year and a 10.7% increase was recorded for the 2020. This category covers motor homes, recreational trailers, campers, motorcycles, recreational watercraft, snowmobiles, off-road all-terrain vehicles, utility trailers and aircraft.

Gasoline station retail sales were down again in Q4 2020, by 17.7% year-over-year. For the full year, sales declined 17.8%. There doesn’t seem to be any good news for gas stations on the horizon.

By The Numbers

Note that the data and analysis in this report are always based on not seasonally adjusted (or unadjusted) retail sales statistics.

For definitions of store types, see Statistics Canada NAICS.

Canadian E-Commerce Sales

Canadian e-commerce retail sales doubled year-over-year in Q2 2020 with the onset of the COVID pandemic. That has now settled down somewhat to a slightly less spectacular 72.0% year-over-year increase in Q4 2020.

Overall, e-commerce represented about 5.9% of Canadian retail sales in 2020, including both pure play as well as bricks & clicks stores. Note that Canadian consumers may also buy online from foreign websites which is not captured in these numbers.

Location based retail is the same as that in the preceding “By The Numbers” table. It’s what’s normally reported as Canadian retail sales. Except that it isn’t. Location based retail excludes another section called Non-Store Retailers (NAICS code 454), which includes electronic shopping and mail-order houses, which in turn is where (mostly) pure play e-commerce businesses are. In 2020, electronic shopping and mail-order houses had an estimated $22.8 billion in e-commerce sales.

But that’s not the only source of e-commerce, as (mostly) bricks & mortar location-based retailers also sell online. For the year 2020, this group had an estimated $14.7 billion in e-commerce sales. With electronic shopping and mail-order houses, there’s a grand total of $37.5 billion in e-commerce sales by Canadian operators. Note that this does not include foreign e-commerce purchases made by Canadian consumers, but it does include e-commerce purchases made by foreigners at Canadian operations.

For electronic shopping and mail-order houses, an estimated 94.6% of their 2020 sales are allocated to e-commerce. For (mostly) bricks & mortar retailers, it can be estimated that 2.4% of their total sales are attributable to e-commerce.

In the final section of the above table, (mostly) pure play operators (namely, under electronic shopping and mail-order houses) generated an estimated 60.9% of all e-commerce sales in Canada, while (mostly) bricks & mortar location-based retailers’ share of e-commerce was 39.1%.

For more explanation on the e-commerce numbers, see Statistics Canada: Retail E-commerce in Canada.

Podcast [The Weekly]: Holt Renfrew Bloor Overhaul Revealed, Downtown Montreal Bay Flagship Redevelopment

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This week, Craig and Lee discuss the completion of the facade and two retail levels at Holt Renfrew’s Mink Mile flagship store in Toronto, as well as the redevelopment of the massive Hudson’s Bay department store in downtown Montreal.

The Weekly podcast by Retail Insider Canada is available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

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Background Music Credit: Hard Boiled Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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