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Peak Season Without the Panic: How Intelligent Route and Capacity Planning Keeps Retailers Ready for Demand Spikes

By
Retail Insider
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Every Q4 retailers face the same challenges in their supply chains. Unforeseen spikes in demand create logjams and inventory congestion. Carriers reach capacity, and route planners are overwhelmed. Loads reach weight limits without enough inventory on board or are underloaded and packed too full. By the time the data finally reports in, it is too late. Packages sit stuck in cargo bays, gallons of fuel wasted trucking boxes around town, and customers wait and wait for their packages to arrive.

Despite the best efforts of retail teams, delivering a great customer experience and driving sales growth is becoming increasingly difficult through overworked and under-resourced teams. Most organisations still rely on static route plans, manual scheduling, and what they believe to be a sensible headroom based on historical demand patterns. As tariff volatility and shifting consumer behaviour reshape 2026 retail strategy (Deloitte’s latest outlook flags inventory positioning and fulfilment agility as top-tier concerns), the margin for error is thinner than ever. and fulfilment agility as top-tier concerns), the margin for error is thinner than ever.

This is where having your capacity and route planned by intelligent AI technology is not a nice-to-have anymore but a necessity within the competitive freight and logistics environment.

The Peak Season Problem Is Getting Harder

The “peak season” used to be simple: Black Friday to Christmas Eve. But in the five years since numerous “demand events” have emerged in the commerce world, the period of high-pitched activity has stretched. Today, back-to-school, Labor Day Weekend, Prime Day sales, same-day delivery windows, and other “demand events” have joined the typical shopping spree from Black Friday to Christmas Eve. Meeting all of these new and growing demands on retailers requires delivery companies to manage three key factors: vehicle inventory, routing, and loading.

If a business is getting any of these three key factors wrong, the costs could be massive and ever-increasing. Here we explore the risks associated with empty miles, failed SLAs and how a flawed delivery experience can dent customer satisfaction.

What Intelligent Planning Actually Looks Like

Libera’s capacity and route planning module has been battle-tested within the ElasticRun logistics network of 2400+ small warehouses across 1800+ cities in India, conducting over 5 Million + shipments per day at the peak season. So, the edge cases that can break most systems during the year’s busiest time are not even theoretical to the platform, but rather things that was encountered with and solved at scale over more than a decade at Elastic Run.

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The platform handles the complexity that most route planning tools struggle with during crunch periods:

Heterogeneous fleets: Peak season means pulling in every available asset – owned vehicles, contracted vehicles for the season and spot-hired vehicles for a week or a short period is not uncommon. At Libera we support a mixed fleet of owned vehicles and contracted vehicles with differing weight, volume and dimension limitations within a single plan, rather than companies having to manage each type of fleet separately.

Tight delivery windows: For quick-commerce and premium delivery services, the available delivery windows are decreasing dramatically. This is especially the case in urban hubs in the UK and around the world, where same-day and even near real-time delivery is becoming the norm. Libera’s planning engine uses AI scheduling to plan for these very tight delivery windows.

Multi-lane optimisation: When a retailer has multiple fulfilment centres or dark stores, the goal is to find the optimal solution for the entire network, rather than optimising the cost per vehicle for each individual lane. Optimising across the entire network with multi-lane planning in Libera ensures travel distance, vehicle volume and cost are optimised whilst workloads remain distributed evenly across the network of facilities without overloading individual hubs.

Real-world constraints: Many planners use route planning tools that do not take into account important factors such as dock availability and service time constraints when optimizing routes. Alternatively, routes and shifts are optimized but then planners hit a wall when they realize there are constraints on where EV drivers can stop to charge up. Libera optimizes route planning, incorporating these real-world factors from the very start.

The Numbers Behind the Claims

The outcomes Libera points to from its own operations aren’t small gains. Route planning that runs 5 times faster means daily plans that used to take a team the better part of a morning can be rerun and adjusted in real time as demand shifts through the day. An 8% reduction in fuel costs achieved through tighter route optimization and higher load factors compounds significantly at peak season volumes. And a 20% improvement in vehicle utilisation directly reduces the number of additional vehicles a retailer needs to hire during high-demand periods, which is where the real cost exposure typically sits.

It’s worth noting that these statistics were generated during the varied high volume trading of a retailer’s peak period as opposed to during a stable and consistent period of trading.

Adaptability Is the Real Differentiator

Perhaps the most underrated aspect of Libera’s planning engine is its configurability. Retail logistics isn’t one thing — a grocery retailer handling 10-minute delivery slots is solving a fundamentally different problem from a furniture retailer managing dock appointments across regional DCs. Libera’s planning scenarios are tailored to the specific constraints of the operation rather than forcing every use case into a single template.

It’s also worth considering whether the routing solution you choose will allow for a manual override in the event that the planner has information that the routing solution doesn’t. Road closures, special handling of an order for a customer, and local knowledge by the driver that a faster route is available. Once the route has been edited and frozen, it can then be sent to the driver’s app on their smartphone. Crucial to choosing the right routing solution is how well it supports the planners in their decision-making. It should be useful, but not override their knowledge and experience.

Planning for 2026 Peaks Starts Now

With Q4 2026 fast approaching, supply chain executives are unclear of potential changes to tariffs that will impact the landed cost of the products that they sell for their organization. Additionally, there are rapid changes in the behaviour of consumers that are also difficult to predict. There are also very restricted carrier markets due to the competitive nature of the industry today. Given these dynamics, success will be less about building a large and complex distribution network and more about utilizing retailers’ advanced planning tools and having the ability to quickly correct for any miscalculations in a company’s sales forecasting process.

Intelligent route and capacity planning has historically been unachievable for many organisations. Planning around a mixed fleet, to a tight delivery time scale, and to multiple locations in real time has been seen as an unattainable black box. That was until Libera, the advanced capacity planning for a global SaaS platform. Designed to handle the toughest of planning scenarios in real time, Libera’s highly scalable, proven architecture has been tested against the biggest and busiest of operations during peak.

Peak season panic is a planning problem. And planning problems, given the right tools, are solvable.

Test Before You Scale: A Lower-Risk Framework for Launching New Online Retail Concepts

By
Retail Insider
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Retail launches have traditionally been built around commitment. A concept is developed, merchandise is sourced, inventory is purchased, branding is completed, systems are configured, marketing is funded, and then the market decides whether the idea works.

That sequence is still appropriate for established formats with strong evidence behind them. For a new retail concept, however, it can force too many expensive decisions to be made before the retailer has learned enough about customer demand.

Digital commerce offers another approach. Instead of treating launch day as the moment when the business finally meets the market, retailers can use a smaller online launch to test the commercial assumptions first. The goal is not to build a miniature version of the final business. It is to create the smallest credible customer experience that can answer the questions that matter.

The framework below summarizes a practical “test before you scale” sequence for evaluating a new retail idea.

Start With a Commercial Question, Not a Website

The first question should not be which theme to choose or how many products to upload. It should be what the retailer needs to learn.

A useful hypothesis identifies a customer, a need, an offer, and a reason the concept might win. For example, an independent home retailer might test whether urban customers will pay more for a tightly edited collection of storage products designed for small spaces. A specialty food business might test whether an existing local audience will reorder online when delivery is convenient enough.

Those are testable propositions. “We want to sell online” is not. The narrower the commercial question, the easier it becomes to interpret the results and decide what to change next.

Treat the Initial Assortment as a Hypothesis

A test does not need the full assortment a mature business might eventually carry. In many cases, a deliberately limited range produces better information.

A focused assortment reduces inventory exposure and makes customer behavior easier to read. It also forces merchandising discipline. Each item should support the concept rather than simply fill space.

For an early test, retailers can favour products with manageable order quantities, reliable replenishment, clear use cases, and margins that can absorb realistic fulfillment costs. The aim is to learn what customers respond to before committing deeply to breadth.

This is especially useful when a retailer is evaluating a new category, a new audience, or expansion beyond the geographic reach of an existing store.

Build Only What the Test Requires

A test storefront still needs to feel credible. Customers should see accurate product information, transparent pricing, delivery expectations, return terms, contact details, mobile-friendly navigation, and a checkout that works.

What the test does not necessarily require is a custom technology stack, a large portfolio of applications, or months of design work before the first customer arrives.

Hosted commerce platforms such as Shopify make it possible to assemble a working storefront quickly, which allows more of the early effort to go into the offer, merchandising, customer experience, and demand signals rather than infrastructure.

The technology should be sufficient to run the experiment without becoming the experiment itself. If the concept later proves it needs more sophisticated integration, customization, or workflow, that investment can be made with better evidence.

Use Controlled Traffic to Learn, Not to Declare Victory

A retailer does not need a national campaign to test whether a proposition attracts interest. Relevant traffic from an existing customer list, local awareness, social channels, search, partnerships, or a modest advertising test can produce useful early evidence.

Traffic quality matters more than headline volume. Thousands of poorly matched visitors can make a concept look weak for the wrong reason. A smaller group of prospective customers who actually resemble the target market can be far more informative.

Each traffic source should have a purpose. If an email list is expected to validate interest among existing customers, measure that. If search advertising is being used to test whether people actively look for the product category, measure that separately. Combining every source into one top-line traffic number hides the learning.

Read the Funnel as a Diagnosis

Early sales matter, but the path to the sale often tells the retailer more than the sales total alone.

If visitors arrive and rarely move beyond the landing page, the positioning or audience may be wrong. If shoppers view products but do not add them to cart, the problem may be assortment, price, product presentation, or trust. If carts are created but checkout completion is weak, shipping cost, delivery timing, payment choice, or checkout friction deserves attention.

The point is not to overreact to a tiny sample. It is to use behavior to form the next question. A controlled test should create a sequence of increasingly specific decisions rather than one binary verdict on whether the idea is “good” or “bad.”

Pair Digital Behaviour With Direct Customer Feedback

Analytics can show where customers stop. It cannot always explain why.

Retailers can improve the quality of the test by speaking directly with a small number of customers and non-buyers. Ask what they expected, what felt unclear, what they compared the offer with, what nearly stopped the purchase, and what would make them return.

These conversations are particularly valuable for unfamiliar categories or premium products, where hesitation is often caused by questions that the retailer did not realize needed answering.

The strongest signal is not praise. It is repeated behavior or repeated friction that points to the same commercial issue.

Test the Economics Before You Test Scale

Early revenue can create false confidence if the cost of producing the order is not understood. Retailers should model the contribution economics of several realistic order types before increasing traffic.

That calculation should include merchandise cost, packaging, payment processing, fulfillment, shipping subsidies, discounts, returns, and customer acquisition. A concept that appears attractive at the gross-margin level may look very different once the cost of getting the order to the customer is included.

This is particularly important for store-based retailers moving further into ecommerce. An online order can introduce fulfillment and service costs that are not obvious in a traditional in-store transaction, even as it creates the opportunity to reach customers outside the store’s normal trade area.

If the model only works when every customer buys a large basket, pays full price, and never returns anything, the concept is not ready for aggressive expansion.

Define the Next Investment Before the Results Arrive

A useful experiment has a decision rule. Before the test begins, the retailer should decide what evidence would justify the next commitment.

That next commitment might be a larger inventory order, higher marketing spend, expanded geographic coverage, additional staff, a broader assortment, a physical pop-up, or deeper technology investment.

The threshold will vary by category. A high-ticket retailer may learn from a relatively small number of serious enquiries and completed purchases. A frequently purchased consumer product may need a larger transaction sample and evidence of repeat intent.

The discipline is to avoid moving the goalposts after the results arrive. Predefined criteria reduce the temptation to continue because money has already been spent or because the team has become emotionally attached to the concept.

Online Testing Can Inform Physical Retail Decisions

This framework is not only for digital-first businesses. Store-based retailers can use online testing before making larger physical commitments.

A retailer considering a new product category can launch a tightly edited online collection, measure which items attract attention, learn what questions customers ask, and assess demand beyond the current store catchment area. A business considering a pop-up can test the message and product mix before committing to space. A retailer planning geographic expansion can compare response from different regions before making a location decision.

In that sense, ecommerce becomes a research environment as well as a sales channel.

The Strategic Advantage Is Optionality

Retail has always required decisions under uncertainty. Digital commerce does not eliminate that uncertainty, but it can lower the cost of answering some of the questions that used to require a much larger launch.

When the first version of a concept is designed to learn, the retailer preserves optionality. A strong response can justify deeper inventory, marketing, systems, and physical expansion. A weak response can be diagnosed, revised, or stopped before the commitment becomes much larger.

That is the real value of testing before scaling: not avoiding risk, but taking the next risk with better information.

Conclusion

The most useful first version of a retail concept is not necessarily the most complete one. It is the version that can answer the most important commercial questions at an acceptable cost.

By defining the hypothesis, limiting the initial assortment, building a credible storefront, attracting controlled traffic, reading the full customer journey, checking the economics, and setting decision rules in advance, retailers can turn launch from a single high-stakes event into a sequence of informed investments.

The objective is not to prove the idea at any cost. It is to learn enough to know whether the next investment deserves to be made.

Casavogue Highlights Made-in-Italy Design from Calligaris

By
Retail Insider
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Italian furniture has long been admired for the way craftsmanship, engineering and refined design come together in pieces intended for everyday life. At Casavogue in Montréal, that tradition is represented by Calligaris, a century-old Italian furniture brand known for its sophisticated approach to contemporary living.

Founded in Italy in 1923, Calligaris has grown from its origins as a chair manufacturer into an international design brand offering furniture for throughout the home. Tables and seating remain an important part of its identity, with a particular emphasis on adaptable designs that respond to how people live and entertain today.

At Casavogue, the Calligaris selection includes Made-in-Italy pieces that demonstrate this combination of design and functionality, including the Omnia and Yoroi extendable dining tables and the Oleandro dining chair.

Italian Design Made for Contemporary Living

Calligaris began in Manzano, in northeastern Italy, an area with a long history of furniture production. More than a century later, the brand continues to draw on that heritage while working with contemporary designers, materials and manufacturing techniques.

Its dining collections place particular attention on proportion, comfort and flexibility. Extendable tables can adapt for larger gatherings while maintaining a refined appearance for everyday use, and seating is offered in numerous materials and finishes to suit different interiors.

The result is furniture with a distinctly Italian design perspective, supported by practical details that become particularly important once the pieces are part of a home.

Omnia extendable dining table

Omnia: Refined and Adaptable

The Omnia extendable dining table demonstrates this approach through a clean rectangular profile and an extension system integrated into the design.

Made in Italy, Omnia combines a wooden structure with a choice of wood or ceramic tabletop finishes. Its internal rotating extension allows the table to expand from 63 to 83 inches, providing comfortable seating for up to 10 people while keeping the legs positioned at the corners.

The design gives homeowners additional dining space when it is needed without requiring a permanently oversized table, making Omnia particularly well suited to interiors where flexibility matters.

Yoroi extendable dining table

Yoroi: A Sculptural Dining Table

For a stronger architectural statement, the Yoroi extendable dining table takes its inspiration from the armour worn by Japanese samurai. Its central base is defined by vertical grooves and wood inserts, creating a sculptural foundation beneath the tabletop.

The Made-in-Italy design is available in customizable finishes and can extend from 78 inches to as much as 118 inches, accommodating approximately six to 10 guests. Casavogue’s featured version pairs the distinctive base with a Calacatta Paonazzo marble-effect top, giving the table a commanding presence within the dining room.

Yoroi shows a more expressive side of Calligaris, where functionality is incorporated into a piece with enough character to anchor an interior.

Oleandro dining chairs

Oleandro: Comfort with a Distinctive Detail

The Oleandro dining chair brings Calligaris’ longstanding expertise in seating into the collection. Designed by Archirivolto, the chair is characterized by generous upholstery and a distinctive backrest whose wooden frame gradually tapers and flattens toward the ends, a detail inspired by the leaves of the oleander plant.

Made in Italy, Oleandro can be personalized through different upholstery and wood choices, including fabric and leather options. Its combination of cushioning, craftsmanship and carefully shaped details allows it to work alongside a variety of dining tables while maintaining a recognizable identity of its own.

Discover Calligaris at Casavogue

Calligaris is part of the curated selection of Italian and international furniture available at Casavogue. Within the retailer’s 38,000-square-foot Montréal showroom, customers can experience furniture in complete room settings and receive personalized guidance when selecting dimensions, materials, finishes and configurations for their homes.

For customers drawn to Italian furniture, the Calligaris collection brings together a century of design experience with the flexibility required for contemporary living. Pieces such as Omnia, Yoroi and Oleandro demonstrate how craftsmanship and thoughtful engineering can shape furniture that is distinctive, comfortable and designed for long-term use.

Visit the Casavogue website to explore its selection of high-end furniture.

The showroom is open Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Casavogue is located at 8260 boulevard Saint-Michel, Montréal, QC H1Z 3E2. For more information, call +1 514-360-3565 or book an appointment to receive personalized advice.

Doritos launches rolled tortilla chips exclusively in Canada

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Pepsico photo
Pepsico photo

PepsiCo Canada is launching a new Doritos product in Canada, introducing rolled tortilla chips in three flavours as the snack maker expands its product lineup.

Doritos Roll’d chips is available at major retailers nationwide beginning in August. The new product features a rolled format and comes in Nachos Supreme, Fiery Lime and Dill Pickle Blast.

PepsiCo Canada said the launch is aimed at consumers seeking a combination of flavour and texture, with the rolled shape designed to provide a different eating experience from traditional tortilla chips.

The Nachos Supreme flavour combines cheddar, tomato and jalapeño, while Fiery Lime pairs chili with lime. Dill Pickle Blast features dill and a tangy pickle flavour.

Shirley Mukerjea
Shirley Mukerjea

“Doritos has always delivered bold flavour and unexpected experiences, and Doritos Roll’d brings that spirit to life with a distinctive rolled format and added intensity” said Shirley Mukerjea, Chief Marketing Officer, PepsiCo Canada. “Younger Canadians are looking for snacks that engage more than taste alone, so we brought together flavour, texture, crunch and visual appeal in one memorable bite, and we’re incredibly excited for Canadians to try it.”

The company said its research found that Gen Z consumers are looking beyond flavour when choosing snacks, with an interest in products and experiences that appeal to multiple senses and allow them to express their personalities.

PepsiCo Canada said the rollout will also include social media content, creator activity and other promotional events tied to the new product.

PepsiCo generated nearly US$94 billion in net revenue in 2025, according to the company. Its portfolio includes Lay’s, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Quaker and SodaStream.

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Westcliff acquires Kingsway Mall in Edmonton

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Montreal-based real estate company Westcliff announced Monday the acquisition of Kingsway Mall, a dominant regional enclosed shopping centre located in Edmonton, Alberta.

The acquisition marks Westcliff’s return to Western Canada through a prominent retail destination serving one of Alberta’s most important urban markets, said the company in a news release.

“Kingsway Mall represents the kind of asset that has always been central to Westcliff’s approach. A well-established property, deeply rooted in its region, with the ability to serve its community for generations to come,” said Alan Marcovitz, President of Westcliff. “Our return to Western Canada reflects our confidence in the Edmonton market and in the enduring value of retail destinations that bring people together.”

The acquisition adds a well-located, high-traffic asset to Westcliff’s growing national portfolio in a trade area the company believes is positioned for sustained growth, it said.

Kingsway was co-owned by Oxford Properties and managed by Oxford Properties Group, a global leader in premium real estate. Oxford is owned by OMERS, the defined benefit pension plan for Ontario’s municipal employees

No financial details of the transaction were disclosed.

Westcliff photo
Westcliff photo

“We see an opportunity to build on that foundation and support its continued role as a destination for shoppers across greater Edmonton,” said Nicolas D’Aoust, Vice President of Westcliff and Head of Leasing. “Driven by a young and educated population, Edmonton’s dynamism reinforces its appeal as a strategic market with promising long-term economic prospects.”

Westcliff said it will work closely with Kingsway Mall’s existing management and operations teams to support a smooth transition and maintain continuity for tenants, shoppers and the broader community.

“Kingsway Mall has long served as a gathering place woven into the daily life of the surrounding neighbourhoods. Preserving and strengthening that role for the community will be a primary goal for us,” said Adam Marcovitz, Vice President of Westcliff.

Centrally located just north of downtown Edmonton, Kingsway Mall has been around since 1976. On a 41.8-acre site, the 880,049-square-foot shopping centre features more than 160 stores and services, including Walmart Supercentre, HomeSense, Marshalls, Shoppers Drug Mart, Aritzia, Sephora, Lululemon and Browns Shoes, and attracts close to seven million visitors annually. With annual retail sales of $715 per square foot, Kingsway Mall is a leading Edmonton shopping destination with strong market fundamentals, deep local relevance that maintains strong ties to the community through initiatives that support local causes and organizations, added Westcliff.

Founded in 1972, Westcliff is a privately owned, diversified real estate development and management firm with holdings across shopping centres, office, industrial, residential and hospitality assets in Canada and the United States.

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Westcliff photo
Westcliff photo

Walmart+ Takes Bigger Role as Walmart Expands Canadian Digital Strategy

By
Craig Patterson
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Photo- Walmart
Photo- Walmart

Walmart is giving Canada a larger role in its international digital expansion as the retailer builds its membership, e-commerce and Marketplace businesses beyond the United States.

During Walmart Inc.’s second-quarter earnings call last week, CEO John Furner pointed to Canada several times while discussing the company’s international growth. Walmart International e-commerce sales increased 19 per cent during the quarter, with China, India and Canada identified as markets leading the growth. E-commerce now accounts for about 30 per cent of Walmart International’s sales mix.

Canada is also the first Walmart market outside the United States to receive Walmart+, the company’s paid membership program. Walmart+ launched in Canada on June 4, building on the retailer’s Delivery Pass service with additional benefits including free Walmart.ca shipping with no minimum purchase and an included Crave subscription.

Furner highlighted the Canadian Walmart+ launch alongside another development during the quarter: Walmart expanded capabilities from its U.S. Marketplace platform into Canada and Mexico. He grouped membership, Marketplace, fulfillment services and advertising among the businesses Walmart is increasingly deploying across international markets.

The comments put the Canadian Walmart+ launch into a broader context. Walmart has spent several years developing its membership and e-commerce businesses in the United States, and Canada is now the first international market where the company is extending the Walmart+ model.

Walmart+ Builds on Delivery Pass

Walmart+ costs $8.97 per month or $89 annually in Canada. Existing Delivery Pass members, who had been paying the same $89 annual price since that program launched in 2023, were automatically moved to Walmart+ when the new program launched in June.

The Canadian program includes unlimited free same-day delivery from stores on orders over $35, along with discounted Express Delivery. Members also receive free shipping with no minimum order on thousands of eligible products sold through Walmart.ca and the Walmart app.

Walmart included Crave Standard with Ads as part of the membership at no additional cost, adding an entertainment component to the Canadian program. At the time of the launch, Catherine Theberge-Conner, Head of Membership at Walmart Canada, said the company was bringing together grocery and general merchandise delivery with benefits outside retail.

Andrew Go, Vice President of E-Commerce and Marketing at Walmart Canada, also highlighted the removal of Walmart.ca’s shipping minimum as a significant change for the retailer’s Canadian online business. The additions give Walmart more opportunities to keep members within its ecosystem, from regular grocery orders to smaller online purchases that may previously have fallen below a free-shipping threshold.

Membership Becoming More Important to Walmart

Walmart’s latest results show the growing importance of membership to the company. Membership fee revenue increased nearly 17 per cent during the quarter, while Walmart+ continued to record double-digit membership growth in the United States. Management said the first half produced the strongest membership growth in the U.S. program’s history.

CFO John David Rainey told analysts that Walmart members spend approximately four times more than non-members. The figure refers to Walmart’s broader membership business and is not a measure of spending by Canadian Walmart+ members.

Membership generates fee revenue while giving Walmart another way to increase shopping frequency and customer spending. Canada now gives the company its first opportunity to extend Walmart+ beyond the U.S., where the program has had several years to develop.

Furner returned to the Canadian launch at the end of Thursday’s earnings call, mentioning Walmart+ alongside continued growth in e-commerce, Marketplace and advertising.

Canada Among Markets Leading E-Commerce Growth

Walmart did not disclose a separate Canadian e-commerce growth rate for the quarter, although management twice identified Canada as one of the markets contributing to Walmart International’s 19 per cent e-commerce increase.

Rainey said Walmart has been deploying digital capabilities developed in the United States into other markets, allowing the company to move faster operationally and grow at a lower marginal cost. He also linked continued e-commerce growth to the development of businesses including Marketplace, advertising, data services and membership.

Walmart already has a sizeable Canadian audience across its physical and digital channels. The company operates more than 400 stores nationally and says both its stores and Walmart.ca serve or attract more than 1.5 million customers or visits daily. Its current investment program is adding stores and supply-chain capacity to support further growth.

Marketplace Capabilities Expand in Canada

Walmart told investors that it expanded capabilities from its U.S. Marketplace platform into Canada and Mexico during the quarter. Marketplace allows third-party sellers to offer products through Walmart’s digital properties, increasing the assortment available beyond merchandise sold directly by Walmart.

The platform also feeds other parts of Walmart’s digital business, including fulfillment and advertising. Rainey told investors that sustained e-commerce momentum supports growth in Marketplace, advertising, data ventures and membership, businesses that are becoming increasingly important to Walmart’s financial model.

Management said Walmart is increasingly developing capabilities that can be scaled across multiple countries. The Canadian expansion of Walmart+ and Marketplace provides a current example, with platforms developed in the U.S. being extended into Walmart’s Canadian operation.

Stores and Supply Chain Support Digital Growth

Walmart’s Canadian digital expansion is occurring alongside one of the largest physical investment programs in the retailer’s history in this country. Walmart Canada announced in January 2025 that it would invest $6.5 billion over five years in its Canadian store and supply-chain network, including dozens of planned new stores and new distribution infrastructure. The company described it as its largest investment in Canada since entering the market 30 years earlier.

New Supercentres are being developed with online pickup and delivery incorporated into their operations. Walmart’s planned southwest Edmonton location, expected to open in 2027, will offer online pickup and delivery for grocery and general merchandise. Other recently announced locations are being designed with similar capabilities.

The relationship between stores and e-commerce was a major theme of Thursday’s earnings call. Walmart executives described stores as an increasingly important part of the company’s fulfillment network as customers move between in-store shopping, pickup and home delivery. The hard fulfillment figures discussed on the call were specific to the U.S. business, but Walmart Canada’s current store program is also incorporating pickup and delivery into new locations.

Supply-chain investment is happening at the same time. Walmart Canada opened a 750,000-square-foot fulfillment centre in Milton, Ontario, in June, adding capacity for more than 43,000 unique products and approximately 65,000 pallets. The facility supports Walmart’s core assortment, extended online assortment and Walmart Fulfillment Services, and the company says some local customers are already receiving same-day delivery through it.

The Milton facility follows the opening of Walmart Canada’s 550,000-square-foot Vaughan Ambient Distribution Centre in 2025. The Vaughan facility uses automation, robotics and AI-driven warehouse management and currently serves 131 stores and two fulfillment centres across Ontario.

Competing for More Canadian Shopping Trips

Walmart+ adds another paid membership offering to a Canadian market where membership programs already play an important role in retail. Amazon has used Prime to connect shipping, digital entertainment and other services with its e-commerce business, while Costco has built its retail model around paid membership. The programs differ substantially, but each creates an ongoing relationship with customers beyond an individual purchase.

Walmart enters that competition with a large Canadian store network and a substantial grocery business. Same-day store delivery allows Walmart+ to cover frequently purchased products such as groceries and household goods alongside conventional e-commerce orders, while the inclusion of Crave gives members a benefit they can use without making a retail purchase.

The opportunity for Walmart is to convert more of its existing Canadian store and online traffic into membership relationships and greater use of its digital services. The company is building Walmart+ alongside Marketplace, e-commerce, fulfillment capacity and a multi-billion-dollar investment in its Canadian store and supply-chain network.

Canada’s position as the first international Walmart+ market also gives Walmart an early indication of how its membership model performs outside the United States. Thursday’s earnings call shows that the Canadian business is already part of Walmart’s wider effort to take its membership and digital platforms into more international markets.

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Ottawa’s Tariff Retaliation Risks Raising Grocery Prices for Canadians

By
Sylvain Charlebois
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Grocery store in Quebec. Photo: Vergo Construction

Canada’s trade negotiations with the United States have failed. Washington has imposed 50% tariffs on approximately $28 billion worth of Canadian products, and Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised a dollar-for-dollar response beginning September 8.

Retaliation may be politically inevitable. But Ottawa must proceed very carefully. In attempting to punish Washington, Canada could easily end up punishing Canadian families at the grocery store.

Tariffs are taxes. Full stop.

A Canadian counter-tariff is collected from the Canadian company importing the American product. The exporter may absorb some of the cost, but importers, distributors and retailers will inevitably pass part of it along. Grocery margins are already thin.

Eventually, the cost appears at the checkout.

We learned that lesson in 2025, when the Trudeau government imposed 25% counter-tariffs on a remarkably broad range of American products. The list included orange juice, peanut butter, coffee, tea, chocolate, rice, pasta, fruit, vegetables, poultry, dairy products, cooking oils, sauces and soups.

It was political theatre masquerading as food policy.

A subsequent Bank of Canada study found that prices for tariffed goods increased by approximately 6% relative to comparable untariffed products. For tariffed food and beverages, the increase approached 8% at its summer peak. Retailers did not pass along the entire tariff, but consumers clearly paid part of it.

Most of those consumer tariffs were removed after six months, limiting the damage. This time, however, the retaliation could be broader, higher and more persistent. If food, ingredients, packaging and agricultural equipment are included, the combined cost could approach $200 annually for an average Canadian household. That estimate reflects not only direct tariff costs, but also the expense of changing suppliers, importing from more distant markets and operating a less efficient supply chain.

Lower-income households would be hit hardest. They have fewer opportunities to stock up, shop at several stores or buy in bulk. Food inflation is also cumulative. Canadians do not recover the purchasing power lost after years of higher grocery prices simply because inflation eventually slows.

Food prices are already roughly 27% higher than they were five years ago. Still, adding more pressure would be reckless.

There is also the risk of a price-umbrella effect. When an American product becomes more expensive, competing Canadian and foreign brands face less pressure to keep their prices down. Importers may replace nearby American suppliers with more distant sources, increasing transportation, warehousing and contracting costs.

The Bank of Canada did not find a statistically significant broad spillover to substitutes in 2025. That is reassuring, but it is no guarantee this time. The coming tariffs could last for years rather than months. The same research found that retailers passed along more of the cost when they believed tariffs would remain. Expectations matter.

Once companies conclude that a tariff is permanent, they renegotiate contracts, change suppliers, rebuild distribution networks and reset prices. Those costs can spread well beyond the products appearing on Ottawa’s retaliation list.

This is why food must be spared.

The final list has not yet been published, but dairy has already been mentioned as a potential target. That makes little economic sense. Canada already controls dairy imports through supply management and tariff-rate quotas. Additional tariffs would affect specialized American products and ingredients without necessarily creating meaningful political leverage in Washington.

Food-manufacturing ingredients should also be exempt, along with packaging, fertilizer, animal feed, refrigeration equipment, agricultural machinery and replacement parts. Tariffing these products would raise the cost of producing Canadian food. A product does not need to appear on a grocery shelf to increase grocery prices.

Ottawa should also resist the argument that food tariffs are harmless whenever Canadian substitutes exist. Restricting a lower-priced import reduces competition and gives domestic suppliers more room to increase prices. Canadian producers may benefit, but Canadian consumers can still lose.

If Canada must retaliate, it needs a scalpel, not a sledgehammer.

Countermeasures should focus on non-essential goods with a low weight in household budgets, sufficient alternative suppliers and genuine political importance in the United States. Government procurement restrictions, investment screening and coordinated legal challenges should also be considered instead of relying almost exclusively on border taxes.

Every proposed tariff should pass four tests. Is the product essential to Canadian households? Is it an input for Canadian production? Can it be sourced elsewhere without significantly higher costs? Will targeting it exert meaningful political pressure in the United States?

If a tariff increases Canadian food-production costs or grocery bills without creating real pressure in Washington, it has failed.

Trump’s tariffs are harmful because they raise costs, distort supply chains and weaken competitiveness. Canada should not reproduce the same damage at home simply to demonstrate resolve.

Retaliate if we must. But keep food—and everything required to produce it—off the tariff menu. The objective should be to pressure Washington, not weaponize the cost of living against Canadians.

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AI’s Growth Reveals a Hidden $381.3 Million Problem for Retail Brands: Outdated and Unmanaged Enterprise Content

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Andrea Piacquadio photo
Andrea Piacquadio photo

New research from Storyblok, in collaboration with FT Longitude (part of The Financial Times), uncovers the true cost of content debt: content that is outdated, poorly structured, not optimized for search or AI discovery, and difficult to update and publish efficiently. 

According to a survey of organizations with at least $1 billion in annual global revenue, content debt is costing retail enterprises $381.3 million on average, based on spend devoted to fixing it and revenue at risk from it.

AI search made a bad problem even worse

Content debt has always been buried in Google searches, but companies ignored it because they didn’t feel the impact. Now that AI is using that outdated content in its answers, many brands are either being misrepresented or left out entirely, explained Storyblok.

The business impact of content debt is significant for retail companies: 

  • 5.5% – Average annual revenue at risk from content debt
  • $4.5 million – Average amount spent fixing content debt (33.4% of total content spend)
  • 93.6 – Average hours spent each week maintaining existing content 

Retail executives realize they have a content problem

After decades of letting brand inconsistencies spread online, executives understand that their bad content habits have to change now:

  • 85% say improving the quality, structure, and governance of their content would deliver measurable business value for their organization
  • 78% say their organization carries more digital content than it can realistically keep accurate, relevant, and up to date
  • 69% say outdated or inconsistent content is making it harder for customers to find, trust, or act on their information
  • 68% say the lack of visibility they have of their content is a compliance risk for their organization
  • 60% say poor content quality or structure is weakening their visibility in search and AI-driven discovery

Content debt is a technical problem that can be solved

The report said 68% of retail executives agree that improving their content strategy is more of a technical challenge than a creative one, which suggests that teams are being held back by their CMS and tech stack, not their abilities.

Dominik Angerer
Dominik Angerer
SHVETS production photo
SHVETS production photo

Dominik Angerer, CEO and Co-Founder of Storyblok, said: “For decades, publishing as much content as possible, hoping it ranks in search, and letting the content and platforms decay has been a business strategy. It felt good at the time, just like loading up a credit card with a bunch of impulsive purchases and not thinking about the true cost of the debt. But now AI has exposed the scope of the problem and it can’t be ignored anymore. The bill is past due.

“In the same way that consumers need to develop a plan to pay off debt, retail brands need a content debt recovery plan that helps them eliminate the content and tech debt that is a burden to their business. The fact that they’re already spending so much time and money maintaining content and it isn’t decreasing the overall effects of content debt in a meaningful way proves that what they’re doing isn’t working. 

“The retail companies that audit all of their content, implement new ways of managing it, and measure the results will have confidence that their content is accurate, optimized, visible, and driving revenue in AI and every channel that’s important to them.”

In an interview with Retail Insider, Angerer talked about the issue.

Question: What does “content debt” look like for retailers in practical terms, and why has it become a more significant problem as AI increasingly influences product discovery and purchasing?

Answer: For retailers, content debt often looks harmless. It’s an old product page that’s still live, a pricing page from a promotion that ended months ago, a return policy that was updated on the main site but never changed on an old campaign page, a link where the product is sold out. It’s duplicate product descriptions, or different versions of the same information sitting in different parts of the business.

Most of this happens simply because retail moves fast. Products get discontinued, promotions end, new campaigns launch, people move teams and the old content doesn’t always get cleaned up behind them. Our research found 78% of retail executives say they’re carrying more digital content than they can realistically keep accurate and up to date, and 85% say improving the quality, structure, and governance of that content would deliver measurable business value. That’s a big gap between knowing there’s a problem and having fixed it.

AI is what turns this from a background issue into an active one. Customers can now run into old information without ever visiting the page where it lives. If someone asks an AI tool about a return policy, they might get an answer pulled from information the retailer changed years ago. Content that used to be easy for a customer to miss can now show up right when they’re deciding what to buy. For retailers, that turns an old content problem into a customer and revenue problem.

Q: Your research found that 5.5% of revenue is at risk for global retail organizations with more than $1 billion in revenue. What are the biggest sources of that potential revenue loss, and how should retailers assess their own exposure?

A: The biggest risk sits around anything that directly affects a customer’s decision. When that information is outdated or inconsistent, it costs a sale, causes a return, or damages trust. Retailers are already spending $4.5 million a year on average trying to fix this, and putting in nearly 94 hours a week maintaining existing content, and the revenue impact is still there. That tells you the issue isn’t effort, it’s where the effort is going.

AI makes this harder to control because customers no longer have to visit a retailer’s website to get that information. They can ask an AI tool and get an answer based on content the retailer didn’t realize was still out there.

The first step is figuring out what you actually have. Audit product and policy content, including older pages and anything sitting outside the main site, then check that against what AI tools are actually surfacing to customers. That comparison is what tells retailers where the real gaps are and what to prioritize first.

Q: With 78% of organizations saying they have more digital content than they can realistically keep accurate and up to date, what should retailers prioritize when deciding which content to fix, update or eliminate?

A: Start with what matters most to the customer and the business so pricing, availability, product details, sizing, shipping, returns, and warranties. Getting those wrong directly affects a purchase. Then look at anything that creates compliance, safety, or brand risk. After that, retailers can work through older campaigns, discontinued products, and duplicate content.

The goal isn’t to keep every page alive. It’s to have confidence in the content that matters, knowing what exists, knowing what’s accurate, and knowing who’s responsible for it. That’s where the audit becomes the foundation. Once you’ve identified the problem, you need ownership and a review process, or the same debt just builds back up.

Mikhail Nilov photo
Mikhail Nilov photo

Q: How is the rise of AI-driven shopping and agentic commerce changing the way retailers need to structure and manage product information compared with traditional search and e-commerce?

A: Traditional ecommerce was built around a shopper landing on a product page and making the decision themselves. With AI-driven shopping, more of that process happens through a system comparing products, prices, availability, and policies on the shopper’s behalf.

That puts a much bigger premium on product information being accurate, structured, and consistent. If pricing says one thing in one place and something different somewhere else, the AI system has to decide which version is right, and the retailer may not control which one wins. 

Interestingly, 68% of retail executives already say this is more of a technical challenge than a creative one, and it’s worth noting that the retailers who feel most confident in their content are the ones most likely to agree with that. This isn’t because tooling was the cause of their success, but because they’ve already done the harder governance work, and now technology is just helping them continue to get it right.

So retailers need to think beyond individual product pages and build a reliable source of truth behind them, one that both a human and an AI system can trust equally.

Q: What specific investments or changes to their content infrastructure should retailers be making now to ensure their products remain accurate, discoverable and competitive as AI agents become a larger part of the shopping journey?

A: Start with an audit. Retailers need a clear picture of what content they have, where it lives, what’s accurate, what’s outdated, and who owns it. You can’t have confidence in your content if you don’t know what’s actually out there.

Then put a process around it. Products, promotions, and policies change constantly, so there needs to be a clear owner and a clear trigger for reviewing, updating, or removing content when something changes. 

Retail scored well overall in our research, ranking the highest of any industry we surveyed in our Content Confidence Index at 76.8, and it’s still carrying $381.3 million in average content debt. That tells you even strong performers can’t out-create their way past this and it is a challenge that has to be managed on an ongoing basis.

This is where the CMS and underlying content infrastructure matter. Giving retailers a way to manage structured product information consistently across their website, marketplaces, and new AI-driven channels, instead of maintaining different versions for each one. 

But it is important to call out that while technology supports this, it doesn’t replace the ownership and process work. A retailer that buys new infrastructure before deciding who’s responsible for keeping product information accurate will just build the same mess, faster.

More from Retail Insider:

AI Is Shaping Back-to-School Shopping for Canadian Consumers: Accenture

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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August de Richelieu photo
August de Richelieu photo

Back-to-school shoppers may still be headed to the stores, but AI is shaping what ends up in their carts before they even hit the aisles. Recent Accenture research found that 51% of Canadians expect at least half of their spending over the next 12 months to be influenced by AI.

This trend is already showing up in back-to-school shopping. A new Retail Council of Canada and Caddle survey found:

  • 44% of Canadian parents are already using or are very interested in using AI-powered tools to build shopping lists, compare prices and determine where to shop.
  • 17% report they’d consider it if it clearly saved time or money.

Accenture’s Canadian Consumer Pulse Survey Data:

  • 61% of Canadians trust a personal AI agent more than their best friend to make a purchase on their behalf
  • 60% of Canadians are open to an agent completing commerce tasks, such as negotiating deals, resolving complaints, re-ordering or renewing subscriptions, as long as the consumer remains in full control.
  • 21% of Canadians would let an AI agent make the final purchasing decision on their behalf (before payment is made by the consumer), within defined boundaries such as price and preference.
  • Only 7% of Canadians would empower an AI agent to shop autonomously on their behalf, initiating and even completing purchases.

Suzana Colic, Managing Director, Retail Strategy & Consulting, Accenture, said AI is becoming a practical planning tool for Canadian families during a busy, budget-sensitive season. 

Suzana Colic
Suzana Colic
RDNE Stock project photo
RDNE Stock project photo

“Parents are using it to compare prices, build lists, check availability and narrow options before they enter a store. That moves the point of influence earlier in the journey. Retailers need to make their value proposition clear, accurate and visible when a family asks AI: “What should I buy, where should I buy it, and how do I stay within budget?”,” she said.

Colic said retailers need to make it easier for both people and AI to understand. 

“That means accurate pricing, real-time inventory, clear product details, delivery options, return policies and credible claims. Accenture’s Consumer Pulse research shows 60% of Canadians are open to an AI agent completing commerce tasks, but only 21% would allow an agent to make a final purchase within defined parameters,” she explained.

“The opportunity is real, but trust still has to be earned. Retailers should treat product data and service information as part of the shopping experience, not only back-end details. The winners will make it simple for AI to evaluate their products and simple for shoppers to feel confident in the recommendation.”

Colic added that consumers want help cutting through complexity. Families are weighing price, availability, quality, convenience, and personal preference all at once. 

“In Canada, consumers are approaching AI-powered commerce carefully. Consumer Pulse found that 51% of Canadians expect AI to influence more than half of their spending in the next year, while 31% say a successful low-risk AI purchase would make them more comfortable trusting agents with greater autonomy. For retailers, loyalty will be less about habit and more about being consistently useful, reliable, and relevant when AI is helping a consumer decide,” she said.

Andrea Piacquadio photo
Andrea Piacquadio photo

Colic noted that AI will make weak value propositions harder to hide.

“If an agent can compare prices, availability, delivery, reviews, and product claims in seconds, pricing and promotions need to be transparent, competitive, and easy to understand. Loyalty programs also need to move beyond points and discounts to more meaningful value, including personalization, convenience, access and trust,” she said.

“At the same time, the store, maybe paradoxically, becomes more important. Consumers may delegate comparison shopping, but they will still want to own moments that feel personal, emotional or experiential. The store’s role is to create confidence and connection where technology alone cannot.”

Colic said the biggest opportunity for Canadian retailers is to help Canadian families make better decisions with less effort. Back-to-school is high-pressure and basket-driven, and AI can help shoppers decide where to spend, where to save, what to buy now, and what can wait. 

“Retailers that make it easier will have an advantage. The risk is becoming invisible if products, prices or value propositions are not clear enough for AI to recommend. There is also a risk of over-automating moments consumers still want to feel involved in, from a first-day outfit to a backpack a child is excited about. The right approach is not to replace the human side of shopping; it is to use AI to remove friction and strengthen the moments that create trust, inspiration and loyalty.”

More from Retail Insider:

SHEIN planning four-day pop-up in downtown Montreal

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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SHEIN photo
SHEIN photo

SHEIN Canada is heading to Downtown Montreal debuting its Fall/Winter 2026 collection with a four-day pop-up, transforming a storefront into a fully immersive fashion destination.

“Ease into the season with SHEIN’s Fall/Winter style edit which features six trends that carry you from crisp autumn days into cozy winter nights,” says the brand.

The pop-up is open to the public from Thurs. Aug. 27 – Sun. Aug. 30. The retailer said the pop-up showcases SHEIN’s top selections for Fall/Winter 2026, bringing the season’s style forecast to life through six curated trend installations showcasing the key aesthetics shaping the months ahead. From nostalgic Retro Remix to commanding Power Dressing and richly layered Regal Maximalism, each installation is designed as a boutique-style environment where shoppers can touch, feel, and fully immerse themselves in the fashion experience.

SHEIN Photo
SHEIN Photo

Every trend is brought to life through curated in-store displays, transforming the space into a dynamic, multi-sensory style experience, it said.

The six featured trend spaces include:

  • Retro Remix: A playful throwback to decades past.
  • Power Dressing: A commanding, structured aesthetic built on military and equestrian influences.
  • Regal Maximalism: Opulent and statement-making, defined by dramatic silhouettes.
  • Dark Romance: A moody, sensual aesthetic centered on brooding tones and gothic-inspired capes.
  • Soft Glam: A delicate, feminine trend featuring knitted maxi dresses and bubble-hem tops.
  • Folk Revival: An earthy, bohemian trend rooted in craft and heritage.
SHEIN photo
SHEIN photo

“Alongside these trend displays, guests will also be able to shop a broader mix of Fall/Winter picks across SHEIN’s multi-category assortment, highlighting the brand’s evolution into a one-stop shop spanning women’s & men’s apparel, women’s curve, accessories, beauty, home, and pet products,” it says.

The pop-up will open at 962 Sainte-Catherine Street West from Thur to Sat: 10am – 8pm | Sun: 11am – 6pm

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