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Street Food Concept ‘The Halal Guys’ Plans Aggressive Canadian Expansion

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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EXTERIOR VIEW OF THE HALAL GUYS IN TORONTO.

The Halal Guys is bringing its quintessential New York City street cart food experience to Western Canada for the first time.

THE HALAL GUYS IS COMING TO CALGARY

Franchisee Youssef El Sweify has signed a multi-unit franchise deal to bring at least five locations to the Calgary area – marking the concept’s fifth international deal and third in Canada, building on existing locations in Toronto. He plans to open the first location in the Fall.

The Halal Guys is the largest American Halal Street Food concept in the world. Founded in 1990 by Mohamed Abouelenein, Ahmed Elsaka, and Abdelbaset Elsayed, The Halal Guys is now franchising worldwide via a new fast casual/QSR restaurant format.

Ahmed Abouelenein, the company’s CEO, said there are 94 locations in the world currently with 200 in the development. In Canada, there are two operating in Toronto.

Abouelenein said the company has sold five units each in Alberta, Toronto, and Vancouver. The 15 units are under development.

“I think the Canadian market we can develop there at least from 50 to 100 units easily in the next 10 years,” he said.

He said each franchisee of the 15 is required to open one store a year.

“Canada is a very unique market when it comes to food. I know there are a lot of people that will love to eat our food there. In addition we have a lot of customers in the States that are from Canada that love our food and always ask us to bring our food to different parts of Canada.”

The Halal Guys became a well-known New York City brand largely via word-of-mouth thanks to Muslim cab drivers in the 90’s who appreciated delicious, fresh and well-priced American halal food.

“It was a very good valuable meal that was cheaper for our customers,” said Abouelenein. “We focused on our customers, focused on the food quality we serve to the customers. The popularity of the food cart grew a lot and we came to put our first corporate location around mid-2014 in New York City and we started introducing our same menu items that we serve at carts with additional side items.

“That’s how the brand started over the years. The customers loved the food, very unique brand. When the brand started, it was mainly focused on serving halal foods to Muslim cab drivers in the early 1990s because there was no halal food in the city at that time. And throughout the years the brand grew and the halal concept grew from only Muslim cab drivers to everyone and today 90 or 95 per cent of our customers are not Muslim. So the brand is everyone. It’s all about the food we serve to the customers. We take pride in serving the food and we’ll continue doing what we’re doing.”

Abouelenein said the company is extremely excited to enter the Canadian market.

The Alberta locations will include Calgary, Canmore, and Banff.

“The Halal Guys is a unique concept, and there is nothing like it in Canada. The demand for The Halal Guys is very strong here, and we are extremely excited to be opening in the greater Calgary area,” said franchisee owner Youssef El Sweify. “Our goal is to have the first restaurant open by Fall.”

The Halal Guys is partnered with Fransmart, the industry-leading franchise development company behind the explosive growth of brands like Five Guys Burgers & Fries and QDOBA Mexican Grill, as its exclusive franchise development partner to grow the brand. The concept is actively looking for experienced multi-unit foodservice operators to develop additional franchises in major markets across the United States and internationally.

The New York Post calls The Halal Guys “perhaps the city’s most famous open-air dining destination”. The Halal Guys is the #3 Most Yelped business in all of NYC, and as reported by Time Magazine, it is in the Top 10 Most Yelped businesses in the United States. Called “one of the longest-running and best-known food-cart businesses in New York City” by the New York Times, The Halal Guys was named Buzzfeed’s #1 Most Popular Food Truck for 2013, and was featured on Bloomberg Television and Fox News.

Retailers and Landlords in Canada Rethinking Space Amid COVID-19 Shift: CoStar

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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empty shop interior with shopping window

The COVID-19 pandemic with the resulting social distancing measures has had a dramatic impact on Canada’s retail industry creating a number of trends that are accelerating, reversing, or emerging.

Research by CoStar Group Canada said among the accelerating trends is the fact that since the start of the pandemic, more retailers are adopting ecommerce, downsizing to smaller and more efficient space, repurposing mall space for micro-fulfillment, and adding coffee bars or services to maximize their usage.

Additionally, iconic brands are facing hardships while essential retailers are better positioned to thrive. Retail bankruptcies are causing property managers to get creative with their space and repurposing retail space for other uses such as warehouses to support last-mile delivery.

E-COMMERCE IS BOOMING IN THE WAKE OF COVID-19

Roelof van Dijk, Director of Market Analytics, Canada at CoStar Group, said the biggest and most talked about trend these days is the boom in ecommerce as a result of the current pandemic.

“That’s taken off like wildfire,” he said. “It now equates to almost 10 percent of retail sales. The whole point there is when you’re stuck at home and still need to do some shopping that’s the avenue that people have taken. Adoption of that is just speeding up. Now that more and more people have used ecommerce they find they like the convenience.

“That goes hand in hand with the curbside pickup, the buy online pickup in store situation.”

DOWNSIZING IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY PROMINENT

He said the idea of showrooming and downsizing retail space is likely going to become even more prominent as we go forward.

“As more people adopt the ecommerce online avenue then you don’t need as large of a store to have all the inventory you once needed to have in the store. You can take a lot of that inventory into a more industrial type space if you want to do that,” said van Dijk.

“We’ve heard a lot of discussion about what to do with some of this retail space and we’ve seen some listings come up where they’re actually advertising it as industrial space. There was one that came up in Mississauga, an old Zellers/Target space and it’s part of a mall and it’s being offered as either retail or industrial space and there’s two separate rents depending on what the user decides to use it for.”

In the U.S., he said Amazon has expressed interest in some of the old department stores’ space. Or space could be used as curbside pickup or part of the last mile of the supply chain.

“For retail it comes down to the property manager and the retailers are going to have to get very creative in how they are using space,” added van Dijk. “You also see a lot of discussion about what to do in the parking lots. We’ve been talking about this for years in how to repurpose some of these parking lots that are underutilized.

“Vacancy is moving up. It was moving up prior to COVID but it’s definitely going to be moving up a lot faster as we go through the next year, two years.”

In terms of reversing trends, fitness centres, restaurants, and experiential retailers are struggling to reopen and are no longer primary drivers of new demand. Since migration patterns could change, suburban retail could gain traction. People are also now spending more on groceries than bars/restaurants.

Van Dijk said some of these reversing trends are temporary.

“When you look at what has happened in shopping malls specifically over the last 10 plus years, there’s been a big movement to experiential retail. A big movement to put in fitness centres, restaurants, that type of thing,” he said. “Those types of uses were driving traffic. It was that diversification play, get away from competing with ecommerce as ecommerce moves up the food chain.

“You’re starting to see obviously a bit of a reversal on that because these were tenants that were able to pay premium rent and now when their capacity is being reduced 50 percent, or even less than that, these are slow to reopen. Will they be able to remain afloat going forward if they’re only at 50 percent capacity?

“Until we get to the other side of this and we understand what this new normal is going to look like, these are going to be uses that are going to have a hard time expanding and not necessarily the easiest sell to put into your mall knowing that they might not be able to afford the rents they once were able to afford because of capacity issues and increased costs associated with cleaning and so forth.”

CUSTOMER’S PERCEPTION OF CLEANLINESS IS CRITICAL FOR SUCCESS

And in new trends, the perception of cleanliness is critical to make customers comfortable moving forward. Many are now activating outdoor areas, outdoor eating or curbside pickup, and changing layouts to drive future sales. Interestingly, health and safety and BOPIS (buy online and pick up in store) and curbside pickup may be an answer to solving last mile issues.

“Outdoor uses are key right now and a lot of municipalities have fast-tracked restaurants’ ability to open up patios and so forth and expand patios really to help get that going and keep some of these businesses afloat over the next few months,” said van Dijk. “Capitalizing on that outdoor space, capitalizing on those exterior door entrances, is key but come November you’re not going to be able to use those spaces as well as you have been for obvious reasons in Canada.

“The other part of it is the idea of cleanliness. It’s one thing to be clean and the other thing to really hit home the impression that you are taking cleanliness into account and people are going to be very conscious of that. They have been but even more so. There has to be that appearance of cleanliness. It’s critical to make the customer comfortable. Health and safety concerns are very important.”

He said drive thru demand will increase because many people are avoiding public transit. The trend has been for retailers in the past to put their stores in locations that are transit-oriented but now there is talk that the commuter pattern will change as a result of COVID. The question is what impact that will have on where retailers look to operate.

Social Media Chatter in Canada Indicates Retail as a Hot Discussion Topic Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

By
Jessica Finch
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THE TWITTER APP OPEN ON AN IPHONE.

Canadians have been COVID-19 ‘Tweeting’ over the past five months, and retail appears to be a hot topic amongst users. The COVID-19 Twitter conversation sees a new Tweet every 45 milliseconds globally and Canadians have been contributing to the pandemic discourse. Many are using the social media platform to discuss their rapidly-changing consumer habits. Others are using their reach to highlight the Canadian brands who have remained the industry’s backbone during this difficult time. 

PEOPLE ARE COMPARING CHANGING CONSUMER HABITS ON TWITTER

Recent data taken from Twitter showed that 68% of Canadians said their shopping habits will change post-COVID, with a clear trajectory towards ecommerce and online shopping.

Research showed that amongst the new habits cited most frequently on Twitter by Canadian consumers, physical visits to stores were on the decline and home delivery services were becoming increasingly more popular. People were also talking a lot about using self-service checkouts more frequently and wishing to spend limited time within stores, choosing to browse online going forward. 

In March — when Canada entered lockdown — Canadians were blowing up the platform with mentions of household items such as toilet paper, soap, and gloves. In correlation to this, the most-mentioned household brands at that time were Kleenex, Clorox, and Charmin, in that order.

In the dining sphere, data showed the Canadian Twitter conversation about food takeout and delivery had increased by +4x between January-May 2020 when compared to January-April 2019. Uber Eats and Door Dash fared most favourably on Twitter in terms of delivery services. 

CONSUMERS ARE SPOTLIGHTING RETAILERS WHO SHONE THROUGH THE COVID STORM

In addition to comparing consumer habits, Canadians are also flocking to Twitter to discuss their favourite retailers. Across the country brands have seen exponential growth in overall Twitter mentions since January. Engagement has been extremely high for particular Canadian retailers — such as Loblaws and Canadian Tire — and the data is showing prolific brand mention growth for many of the big box stores existing within the Canadian retail landscape. Brands that have fared well include:

  • Loblaws saw a brand mention growth of +145.27%

  • Walmart saw a brand mention growth of +65.28%

  • Costco saw a brand mention growth of 187.59%

  • Home Depot saw a brand mention growth of +166.98%

  • Canadian Tire saw a brand mention growth of +72.91%

  • McDonald’s saw a brand mention growth of +43.16%

In Ontario alone, growth mention increased immensely for the same brands. Data below shows the growth statistics:

  • Loblaws saw a brand mention growth in Ontario of 227.77%

  • Walmart saw a brand mention growth in Ontario of 64.09%

  • Costco saw a brand mention growth in Ontario of 318.54%

  • Home Depot saw a brand mention growth in Ontario of 218.45%

  • Canadian Tire saw a brand mention growth in Ontario of 15.36%

  • McDonald’s saw a brand mention growth in Ontario of 52.46%

Data generated from Twitter also showed that 84% of Canadians agree that brands should communicate with customers on initiatives being implemented in a time of crisis. And it would appear that brands are doing just that, with an overwhelming positive consensus emerging from the Twittersphere. Canadians are generally impressed with how retailers conducted themselves; feeling heard and appreciated during this time.

CANADIANS KEEPING TWITTER POSITIVE DURING TURBULENT TIMES

The positive dialogue on Twitter amongst Canadians during the COVID-19 pandemic is somewhat opposing to the questionable reputation the social platform has been known to have. Many are quick to criticize Twitter — in comparison to other social media platforms — for its prevalence of inflammatory or combative discourse. The ‘cancel culture’ that is emerging from media outlets is rampant on Twitter, and a global pandemic is sure to heighten tensions. 

To date however, the ‘hero pay’ conversation is really the only controversial retail topic that appeared to trend during this time. Currently under fire for retracting the COVID wage increase, Canadian grocerants such as Loblaws, Metro, and Sobeys are navigating their first COVID-19 scandal. In saying that, thousands have also praised these grocery stores for their tireless efforts to keep Canadians equipped with essentials during this time. 

SCREENSHOT OF MOLSON CANADIAN TWEET ANNOUNCING ITS #MAKEITCANADIANBEER INITIATIVE. PHOTO: TWITTER

In recent weeks the #SupportLocal hashtag has emerged frequently — increasing by 60% in Canada from March to April— as Canadians encourage each other to support their local businesses. The month-over-month growth of the hashtag can be seen in some Canadian cities listed below. These numbers compare the total #SupportLocal mentions in April 2020 to the hashtag’s total mentions in March 2020:

  • Vancouver +98%

  • Calgary +29% 

  • Edmonton +56%

  • Ottawa +63%

Molson Canadian has taken this unexpected opportunity to spotlight smaller Canadian-founded brewers on Canada Day with the hashtag initiative #MakeitCanadianBeer. The iconic Canadian beer brand has created “the most Canadian case of beer ever” by replacing their traditional cases of Molson beer with local partner breweries from across the country. In an attempt to support and leverage smaller Canadian breweries, Molson is giving people the opportunity to build their own case of beer by selecting brands from participating brewers in their local area. Molson used Twitter to garner attention and Canadians were more than happy to disseminate the good news across the platform. 

  • SCREENSHOTS OF NO NAME BRAND TWEETS DURING COVID-19. PHOTOS: TWITTER
  • SCREENSHOTS OF NO NAME BRAND TWEETS DURING COVID-19. PHOTOS: TWITTER

Another brand using Twitter to connect to its customers during this time is Canada’s iconic Loblaws No Name Brand. Taking a humorous stance on aspects of lockdown everyone is struggling with, the brand has been applying its famous yellow background and minimalistic black letter to create fake “haircutting guides” and “zoom backgrounds”. The posts receive great traction, with humorous and positive conversation ensuing amongst Twitter users. 

Molson Canadian and No Name Brand then went on to have an unexpected back-and-forth banter about their COVID-related initiatives. The general Twitter discourse appears to have remained overwhelmingly positive and highly interactive during this unprecedented time. Certainly generating some much needed buoyancy during this heavy time. 

SCREENSHOT OF MOLSON CANADIAN AND NO NAME BRAND TWEETING ONE ANOTHER. PHOTO: TWITTER
SCREENSHOT OF MOLSON CANADIAN AND NO NAME BRAND TWEETING ONE ANOTHER. PHOTO: TWITTER

It’s been really great to see such positivity within the Twitter community, especially during such a difficult time,” said Twitter Canada’s Head of CPG, Retail and Dining, Karen Zuccala. The outpouring of support from both consumers and businesses is obvious. People are supporting their local businesses and bigger brands are spotlighting the smaller ones. Twitter, when used correctly, is a safe space for people to engage and interact with each other and the brands and retailers they love the most.”

Free Web Accessibility Tools Don’t Deliver on Their Promises for Online Sellers

By
Retail Insider
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PEOPLE WORKING ON ECOMMERCE BUSINESS.

By Ralph Tkatchuk

The world of eCommerce is cut-throat, crowded, and competitive. You need to do all you can to win over more customers, and there’s only so far that you can slash your prices. Web accessibility in Canada and beyond is fast becoming an important advantage for eCommerce sellers who want to increase revenue and avoid costly lawsuits. 

Consumers with disabilities make up a significant slice of your potential customers, with working-age people with disabilities possessing $490 billion in after-tax disposable income in the US, roughly the same as the African-American market. The disabled are also more likely to shop online, to avoid crowds that shove and push them aside, shop assistants who ignore them, and overwhelming lights and noise, but if your online store is one of the 98% that don’t meet WCAG 2.0 accessibility requirements, you’re pushing them all away.

COVID-19 only sharpened the problem. Many elderly people had never bought anything online before the coronavirus arrived, but then they had to try to understand confusing online instructions, unclear purchase processes, and non-intuitive website hierarchies alone, because lockdown meant that no one could come round to assist them. Bear in mind that people aged over 65 are significantly more likely to have a disability than younger shoppers. 

All we need to add is the fact that ADA title III accessibility lawsuits are rising against eCommerce sites and cost an average of $20,000 to settle out of court. 

With so many good reasons to run an accessible store, what is holding online vendors back? 

The enormity of the task (or so they believe).

Online sellers struggle to achieve full web accessibility. 

Full web accessibility is easy to say but much harder to achieve. It demands that you make multiple changes to your source code so that you can:

  • Enable anyone who can’t use a mouse, for any reason, to navigate the entire site using only the keyboard, including popups and forms;

  • Simplify the language and the purchase journey so that shoppers with cognitive decline or cognitive difficulties can choose their products and complete their transactions;

  • Support the screen readers used by blind people to browse the internet, including coding links, icons, and buttons correctly;

  • Adapting the colour, size, spacing, font, and contrast ratio of the text, enlarging the cursor and clickable fields, and addressing other usability issues;

  • Stopping all animations and flashing gifs that could provoke a dangerous seizure in anyone with photo-sensitive epilepsy.

Most eCommerce vendors and site owners don’t have the tech know-how to carry out these changes, and/or are using a marketplace that doesn’t support full web accessibility. Accessibility service providers have the expertise to identify and correct accessibility issues but their services are expensive and can take weeks to complete. 

It’s no wonder that vast numbers of online sellers are tempted by free accessibility plugins, but do they deliver on their promises? Unfortunately, the answer is No.

Free accessibility plugins are a mirage

Free and low-cost plugins like WP Accessibility and UserWay claim to fix accessibility issues on websites and online stores, but this is very far from the truth. 

To begin with the positives, free accessibility plugins succeed in correcting most usability issues. They mostly generate an accessibility widget that allows the user to adjust the colour and contrast ratio; change the spacing and size of texts; and enlarge the cursor and the clickable field for buttons. Some of them can also adapt text alignment and fonts. 

Although these are all useful adjustments that improve matters for visitors with low vision or colour-blindness, they don’t add up to full accessibility. Abut 80% of accessibility issues concern support for screen readers and keyboard navigability, so free plugins only fix 20% of your online store. 

Keyboard navigation is crucial for millions of users who have amputated limbs, arthritis, motor disorders, or muscle weakness, and for able-bodied consumers with a broken arm or even a broken mouse. Although many plugins help support keyboard-only navigation, like creating a visible focus around web elements, none of them can cope with online forms, popups, dropdown menus, or clickable links and buttons. 

That means that a visitor with disabilities may make it all the way to the payment page, but then be unable to complete a transaction because they can’t fill in the fields on your payment form without a mouse. 

None of these free plugins support screen readers, either. One claims to provide alt tags, but that’s not enough. Another sidesteps the issue by providing its own screen reader, but it isn’t one that’s used by the majority of the blind community. There isn’t a single free plugin that delivers the role building, ARIA attributes, image alt tags, and navigational support that blind consumers need for their screen readers, effectively cutting them all off from your site. 

On top of all that, you won’t find a free plugin that can simplify bewildering jargon or make sense out of confusing website structures to guide shoppers with cognitive impairments through your site. Nor do any of them stop animations and flashing gifs. 

Free web accessibility plugins will cost online sellers a lot of money.

Web accessibility is fast becoming non-negotiable for eCommerce sellers, but the free plugins that promise to help them achieve it are nothing but a mirage.

The bottomline verdict is that plugins like Userway and WP Accessibility aren’t able to meet the many complex requirements for WCAG 2.0 accessibility compliance, leaving frustrated consumers to find a different store and online sellers vulnerable to accessibility lawsuits. 

The solution? Use comprehensive web accessibility solutions like accessiBe or Level Access that actually deliver fully ADA complaint websites. True, they won’t be free, but your website will be accessible.

Ralph Tkatchuk

Ralph Tkatchuk is a freelance data security consultant and expert with over 9 years of field experience working with clients of various sizes and niches. He is all about helping companies and individuals safeguard their data against malicious online abuse and fraud. His current specialty is in eCommerce data protection and prevention. You can reach Ralph via Twitter (https://twitter.com/TkatchukRalph).

‘Painful’ Day of Testimony from Canadian Grocery CEOs Regarding Hero Pay Termination

By
Sylvain Charlebois
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LOBLAWS GROCERY STORE EXTERIOR

Top Canadian grocers testified before a parliamentary standing committee last week to explain why all COVID-19 incentive programs were cancelled within hours. Most grocery store and distribution center employees were paid extra at the beginning of the pandemic, only to see wages now go back to pre-COVID levels.

CEOs who testified were Loblaws’ Sarah Davis, Empire Company’s (Sobeys) Michael Medline, and Metro’s Eric Laflèche.

CEOs OF CANADA’S TOP GROCERY STORES DISCUSSED HERO PAY TERMINATION

Witnesses testifying before parliamentary committees are often used as political puppets to support underlying agendas. This session was no different. Questions were all over the place. CEOs were questioned about farmers, wines, beer sales, and everything in between. Discussions on the safety protocols put in place in the stores were confusing at best. MPs posed questions that were likely inspired by lobby groups who had got to them, wanting to make a point. Grocers are an easy target and are disliked by many, starting with farmers. But to be fair, most farmers have no idea of how complicated food distribution can be. Loblaws, Sobeys, and Metro employ more than 500,000 Canadians. Such a workforce requires strategic coordination.

The two-hour session was simply painful. If it were a TV show, it would have been called “The Empress, The Player, and The Annoyed”. Davis, the Empress, stayed on point, despite the committee’s efforts to throw her off her game. While Medline played along as best he could, Laflèche was clearly irritated by the entire thing.

SOBEYS GROCERY STORE EXTERIOR

Based on the tone of some of the remarks made by committee members, it is difficult to understand what was accomplished in 2 hours. There was no attempt to fully understand how food distribution works in Canada. At least, it was not apparent. Most importantly, it was not clear why only three companies were called to testify the cancellation of their COVID-19 pay programs, while no other companies such as Walmart or Save-On-Foods were summoned to testify. Retailers who did not offer any sort of pay premium were not summoned either.

Many questions suggested that MPs suspected grocers were colluding. Fixing bread prices, which occurred over 14 years is one thing, but talking amongst grocers is something totally different. It is not illegal for grocers to talk amongst themselves. Farmers, processors, wholesalers, and grocers around the world do it all the time. It is called co-opetition. Many companies which compete against each other face similar challenges these days and need to share information, courteously. Climate change, plastics, currency fluctuations, energy costs, are some of the challenges that require information sharing within an industry. COVID-19 is the latest example. The intent is not to favourably change market conditions, but it is rather to understand how the sector itself can cope with unprecedented challenges faced by all simultaneously. Hockey players, for example, who compete against each other can be friends. It is the same in the food industry. Based on the evidence provided during the testimony, nothing suggests that grocers were in fact conspiring.

That said, companies missed an opportunity and should have admitted that these programs were ill-designed from the start. It was clear from the beginning that pandemic pay programs, also referred to as “Hero pay”, would not end well. If companies wanted to reward employees for their work, one-time bonuses would have been more appropriate, and not temporary salary increases. This is what happens in other sectors of our economy. Increasing payroll expenses by 10% to 15% would make most grocery stores unprofitable. In fact, even with current wages, the Canadian market is likely overstored, and many will close over the best year.

METRO GROCERY STORE EXTERIOR

As for the committee itself, the lack of respect towards leaders in the food industry was irritating. Anyone who appreciates the work that was done for weeks during the pandemic would believe it was nothing short of a miracle. Employees played a very important role, no doubt, but so did leadership. 

Grocers are not perfect. One may dispute decisions made by companies and how employees are treated, but salaries and working conditions are set by relying on a high-volume, low-margin business model. It has been like this for years. Higher wages would likely result in higher food prices, so MPs need to be careful with what they wish for. Food security in Canada is a paramount issue, especially now. The pandemic has made us realize that the model needs modernization.

There is a collective call for change, and all three CEOs who showed up in Ottawa are very much aware of it. They have some work to do. But the government needs to play a part as well. A guaranteed income for all has only gained currency throughout this pandemic. Let us hope the crisis we have all experienced will not go to waste.

Canadian Shoppers Hesitant to Spend Amid COVID-19: Survey

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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BLURRED IMAGE OF SHOPPERS ON BUSY RETAIL STREET

A recent survey by Ipsos, the world’s third largest market research company, found that Canadian shoppers today are more thoughtful of their spending and they are taking more time to research online before making their purchases.

BRANDS NEED TO WATCH FOR CHANGING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR POST-COVID

Therefore, brands and retailers need to be prepared for this elevated behaviour, especially as they head into planning for the busy fall/winter Holiday shopping season.

“As companies start to make plans for the busy, make-or-break Holiday shopping season, they will need to have the latest information on shopping trends in order to make the best decisions possible and adapt to a rapidly changing consumer landscape. Any pains in operations or fulfilment today will be amplified as we head into the busy fall shopping season,” said Naumi Haque, Senior Vice President Ipsos.

“Not surprising one of the key things was that many Canadians are shopping online and that’s happening across categories. Groceries is where we saw the biggest shift. Almost a doubling of people using online grocery in about a month. From a broader context, we looked at sentiments for Canadians and we found that the current sentiment related to COVID has sort of normalized.

“Canadians have surpassed the preparation and the adjustment phase where they would have been stocking masks and pantry loading and things like that, over two thirds are now adjusting or acclimatizing to what we’ve been calling like a new normal situation. And I think part of that is we’re seeing purchases in non-essential categories increase as well. Fashion and apparel and home and electronics are starting to see an uptick as well.”

Haque said much of the early volatility in consumer behaviour is now starting to normalize where retailers can make plans for the back half of the year or the next 12 to 18 months because they can start to predict what that time period is going to look like.

CANADIANS ARE STILL REACTING TO THE FINANCIAL IMPACT OF COVID-19

According to the study, Canadian consumers are still reacting to the financial impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on them, with over a quarter delaying or cancelling major purchases (28 percent). As a result, most consumers (61 percent) also agree that they are being more mindful about how much they spend, and nearly half (46 percent) are being more cautious by spending more time researching purchases online before buying them.

The survey also found that three-quarters (75 percent) of Canadians are making fewer trips to the store because of social distancing measures, half (48 percent) are worried about safety precautions taken by delivery companies and a third (34 percent) are still stockpiling food items and personal care products.

“The accelerated growth of digital is being felt across categories, and especially in grocery and personal care. The number of consumers using alternative grocery fulfillment options like curbside pick-up and delivery nearly doubled within a month and high consideration provides ample opportunity for future growth of these platforms,” said Ipsos.

Haque said retailers are planning for the future and what that might look like. They have to invest in understanding how the landscape is changing.

“There’s definitely companies out there that are reluctant to invest in the research because they don’t want to commit the budget or they feel like it’s not worth it because things are going to get back to normal. It’s like ‘oh this is a blip. It’s a pandemic. It will go away’. But I think the fact of the matter is what we’re hearing from consumers and we’re seeing in the data this is the new normal for at least the next 12 months,” said Haque.

“You can’t develop a strategy for a 12-month period being blind to what’s happening with consumers. There’s new consumer segments out there. There’s new consumer needs and shopping occasions that didn’t exist before and we don’t touch in depth on that in the study but we’re doing a lot of custom work with clients to help them understand that.

“Just understanding that this is going to be a longer haul and making sure we have the right information is one thing they can do. The other thing is that it’s going to be a digital fall/winter. The trend is going that way anyway. Every year we see more digital and omnichannel behaviour. But this holiday season we know is going to be much more digital. There’s a lot of general best practices around that. We want to encourage retailers to think about that.”

He said customers are going to want to check inventory before they go online. They are going to research online before going to a store. They won’t want to spend time in a store particularly if there are continued safety concerns.

“So they’re going to do a lot more research up front,” added Haque. “They’re going to be scrutinizing their purchases more. They’re doing more research around price and being mindful of how they’re spending. Using mobile first. We’ve seen mobile trends increase a ton . . . Anything retailers can do to help consumers reduce the amount of time in store using mobile is going to be a really important measure for retailers and for brands.

“For a lot of these activities, consumers don’t really know how to go about shopping. They don’t understand if they go to a mall do they line up outside, do they line up inside. Do I need a face mask? Do I not? Should I have kids? Are there safety measures in place? Around the food court? There’s just a lot of uncertainty so I think communicating to consumers and making sure retailers and brands are communicating in terms of all the measures they’re taking and what are the mechanics of shopping I think is going to be super important.”

Crate and Barrel Launches ‘Crate and Kids’ Concept in Canada

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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EXTERIOR OF CRATE & BARREL LOCATION AT YORKDALE SHOPPING CENTRE.

By Mario Toneguzzi

American retail giant Crate & Barrel has launched its Crate & Kids’ playful and unique designs in Canada.

In response to high demand, and to provide more for the Crate & Barrel Canadian audience, the baby and kids home furnishing brand debuted at the Interior Design Show (IDS) in Toronto.

Following the online launch at crateandbarrel.ca, Crate & Kids products rolled out in five Crate & Barrel Canadian stores including: Calgary, Edmonton, Mississauga, Toronto, and Vancouver.

Crate & Barrel also has a store in Laval in the Montreal area but that store does not have the new concept yet.

“Crate & Kids is all about creating a creative home for families. If you think about the Crate & Barrel brand, we’re kind of an extension of that. It’s this design forward look but Crate and Kids has a real kids’ component to it and that we’re all about self-expression,” said Alicia Waters, Vice-President of Growth Strategies for Crate and Barrel.

“So you’ll see us presented in a really playful and unexpected way but it’s still very soft. It feels very good. But we do play off everything you know about Crate & Barrel. So great quality furniture, great quality in general. Just kind of a similar presentation.”

Crate & Kids is Crate & Barrel’s baby and kids home furnishing brand that combines modern design, functionality, and quality and safety into their furniture and accessories. Dedicated to quality, Crate & Kids is design-forward and imagination-powered, with safety and sustainability at its core, says the retailer. The brand’s newest collection for Spring is modern and unexpected, with a playful aesthetic, aimed to inspire the self-expression of new parents and their kids through thoughtful and meaningful design.

PHOTO: YELP

CRATE & KIDS LEADS WITH ITS FURNITURE ASSORTMENT

Waters said Crate & Kids really leads with its furniture assortment. It has a strong nursery and kids’ bedroom collection. Customers can find everything from storage pieces to toys to teepees to textiles that are soft, comfortable and organic. But the bread and butter is the bedroom collection – cribs, beds, storage pieces.

There’s about 1,500 square feet of this new concept within the larger Crate & Barrel stores.

“Moms can come in and take care of the needs of their families in addition to the rest of the house,” said Waters. “The other big piece is that Crate & Kids is predominantly online. So about 80 percent of our sales are done online.”

“It’s a natural extension on both ends. From a Crate & Barrel standpoint it’s a natural extension for us to go into kids. Kids is a $5 billion segment of furniture alone. So it’s a huge opportunity to kind of bring Crate & Barrel style into this industry. So I think for us it was a natural extension.

“We also think there was a real hole in the marketplace for our look and our design aesthetic which really is soft and playful and unexpected and has a lot of cultural relevance. There were those opportunities that we’re really addressing as a sub brand.

“And from a Canadian standpoint, again, it was a natural next step fo our neighbours obviously within North America. It’s a market that’s super important to us because we’re all about home and family and you’re right here and it’s just a great market for Crate & Barrel in general but we wanted to bring kids. The interesting thing is we heard about this opportunity first from sales associates who told us that moms were coming in and asking. They had seen Crate & Kids in the U.S. probably on the website. And they were asking for it. This was one that kind of came to us through market demand.”

The Canadian version was launched online on January 16 and in store at the beginning of March.

Waters said the Laval store presented some operational challenges at this time and the company was not ready to launch the concept at the Quebec store just yet.

“But it’s something we’re certainly considering in the future,” she said.

CanGift Launches Campaign to Support Local Retail in Canada

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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PARTICIPATING BRAND, MIRABELLA ARTISAN GIFT SHOP, LOCATED IN ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND. PHOTO: THE CANADIAN GIFT ASSOCIATION

The Canadian Gift Association has launched a new campaign to help promote the local retail industry which like others has been hit hard over the past few months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The campaign slogan is ‘Buy the Way, Keep it Local’ and the association says it is more important than ever for consumers to spend their money in their own communities for the independent retail industry to survive in Canada.

“Retailers are the crux of our industry right now,” said Nicole Hilton, Chief Marketing Officer at the Canadian Gift Association. “We know we need to take action to show consumers across the country some amazing home décor and gift businesses that do great business with our association.

“We’re hoping the whole country will get behind this movement. Canadians love to support local shops and there is no time like the present for consumers to step it up and invest in their local economies.”

INTERIOR PHOTO OF PARTICIPATING BUSINESS, GREENLAND GARDEN CENTRE, LOCATED IN SHERWOOD PARK, ALBERTA. PHOTO: THE CANADIAN GIFT ASSOCIATION

Buy the Way, Keep it Local

CanGift is the voice of Canada’s giftware industry, connecting wholesale companies to retail store buyers at the Toronto and Alberta Gift + Home Markets. These b2b events — two a year in Toronto and two a year in Edmonton — are typically attended by 10,000+ retail buyers looking to place orders, source the latest trends and learn from industry experts. CanGift aims to keep the connection strong despite the cancellation of their in-person markets this August due to COVID-19.

“They’re all suppliers that basically take orders from retailers across the country to fill their stores with products and merchandise and that sort of thing. So we have a membership base that is comprised of companies in all the gift categories. We have home decor. We have general gift giftware. Toys. Or children’s items. We have some gourmet food members. Some that are involved in maybe floral, outdoor items, or small furniture items or fashion, jewelry and accessories. Or kitchenware,” said Hilton.

“Membership basically gives you the opportunity to join the association and partake in the initiatives we do at the association, member benefits which include some breaks on shipping and freight and various things like that. But also the main thing is exhibiting in our business to business trade shows.

“Obviously right now the trade show industry is at a halt, needless to say.”

To help in these trying times, CanGift has launched its new campaign which is shining a light on the extensive database of retailers from across Canada, who could benefit from additional promotion and assistance during this time with the goal of featuring one retailer a day for 365 days on the Instagram account @keepitlocalcanada.

INTERIOR PHOTO OF PARTICIPATING BRAND, RUG & WEAVE, LOCATED IN GUELPH, ONTARIO. PHOTO: THE CANADIAN GIFT ASSOCIATION

The Buy the Way, Keep it Local grassroots campaign includes:

  • A commitment to featuring as many retailers as possible on the Instagram account for the next year;

  • Digital logo provided to retailers so they can join the movement by featuring it on their social media accounts and websites;

  • Meaningful partnerships that encourage consumers to shop in their own communities – CanGift is searching for opportunities to work with Business Improvement Associations and other initiatives taking place coast-to-coast;

  • Incentives from CanGift members that assist retailers in their ‘return to normal’ sales plans;

  • Contests with prizes from CanGift members awarded to retailers to help advance their businesses; and

  • Retailer Roundtable webinar series highlighting insightful discussions with Canadian retailers.

“It’s been hard. I think our industry has been hit in two ways. The real happening part of our business are these trade shows that we do. The b2b trade shows and that’s where retailers really get to come and see products. There’s a lot of value in being able to touch them, see them, check out the quality of products . . . hear from industry experts in our seminars and educational programming and make that face to face business relationship,” said Hilton.

“At our Toronto show, it’s the bigger of the two markets, and we draw from coast to coast with retail shop owners coming to place their orders and do their buying for their stores at that show.”

At the most recent show in January, more than 11,000 buyers came through the door with more than 650 exhibitors.

“The second way this industry has been hit is we’re working directly with retail and retail has been forced to close. At the beginning of the pandemic, we started to hold a lot of complimentary webinars for our audiences – retailers and wholesalers and some of the topics were basically how do you get your business online at that time and we were hearing from so many retailers thanking us for offering them the information,” said Hilton.

“Canadians really invest in buying local. This is a trend they’re already doing. So we should try to emphasize it more during this time to get more money into these local communities to help these retailers survive what’s going on,” added Hilton about the Buy the Way, Keep it Local campaign.

“We really want to try and highlight local business.”

Virtualizing Brick-and-Mortar Stores through Augmented Reality for Advanced Online Shopping

By
Retail Insider
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A VIRTUALIZED REPRESENTATION OF A BRICK AND MORTAR STORE.

By Amy Gu

Online shopping has been growing healthily in just about every category of product. Though the market did not seem to need further motivation, the recent worldwide pandemic accelerated its growth. According to Rakuten Intelligence, ecommerce spending has jumped up around 30 percent compared to pre-pandemic figures. Are vendors adapting online shopping experiences to meet this fueled demand?

Seemingly every category of product is seeing a jump in ecommerce sales. Research by Signifyd Inc. found significant ecommerce spending in various categories that include alcohol, auto parts, general merchandise, home goods, and more. As ecommerce spending is propelled forward, there are technology implementations that can be considered to enhance the online shopping experience.

Some customers prefer certain experiences at brick-and-mortar stores. For example, hand-selecting things like produce is not possible online. This is an experience many customers desire. In addition, whether in a home goods store or a grocery store, many shoppers peruse isles to discover things they need or want as they shop. With technology, such differences in experience can be bridged. As everyone from young adults to senior citizens turn to online shopping like never before, brick-and-mortar stores need to adapt to serve their needs.

Using 2.5D Modeling to Converge an Experience

To create an online shopping experience that is more like physically being there, developers can use 2.5D modeling. Briefly, we understand two-dimensional, or 2D, things to be flat. This is much like a drawing on a paper or text on your computer screen. Everything is pretty much at the same depth.

When something is three-dimensional, or 3D, it is thought of as having three axes or three planes of depth. With a 3D view, you can pretty much rotate an entire item to see all its sides. So, we can see how 2.5D modeling might be somewhere in between.

With 2.5D modeling, it is essentially a 2D model with overlays on top to make things appear as if they were three dimensional. You might imagine a 2D picture of a box of macaroni. With a 2.5D model a developer can overlay the side or sides of the box on top of the 2D image giving the impression of depth and providing more product detail. But why not just go all the way and use 3D modeling?

A RETAIL STORE CAN BUILD AN ONLINE STORE WITH 2.5D MODELING TO RESEMBLE A PHYSICAL STORE EXPERIENCE IN THE VIRTUAL REALM FOR ONLINE SHOPPING.

To build an online store with 3D modeling would be prohibitive in at least two ways. First, 3D imagery requires far more storage and file size. But that is not the concern as much as it is how long it would take for a customer to load a page, let alone many pages. Consumers simply are not willing to wait long enough for it. Second, building a 3D model of an entire store and all its items is also comparatively cost prohibitive.

Implementing Modeling

To create such a 2.5D model of a retail store, one can use a person, robot, or drone to move along the isles of the store. While moving, images are captured of the complete environment. These images can then be stitched together to create the virtual store.

This is much like creating a panorama shot with a camera. To do so, an amateur photographer first shoots the left side of a scene, then the middle, and then the right. With software, the images are then stitched to create one image of the entire scene. This is what a store can do but with many more images to capture the entire store, aisle by aisle. Barcode labels on store shelves can be used to create the main stitching coordinates.

One obstacle will be that when a store changes its product lines or the display and positioning, it will require redoing imagery and re-stitching. Again, this can be made simpler with barcoding. When stitching together images, using barcode price tags on store shelves is ideal. By standardizing these barcodes – their location, barcode type and so on – developers can use software that offers the capability to stitch in this manner, to build their virtual online store more easily.

Adding Augmented Reality

With a 2.5D model stitched together of all isles, produce areas and other product locations, you can consider augmented reality (AR) to spruce up the overall experience. AR is basically where you can further overlay more images, video, audio, haptic feedback, and more on top of the 2.5D model.

One example might be adding AR to a 2.5D model of a box of a throw pillow. When a shopper is in the view of the pillow on a shelf, they can pull it out and view it and perhaps flip it over. An AR overlay might include an informational box listing the materials it is made of. You might even add a haptic feedback of a soft vibration to imply how soft the pillow is. There are many paths to using AR to create a more enriched interactive experience. By adding AR, developers can get one step closer to mirroring an experience of being at a brick-and-mortar store.

BY LAYERING AUGMENTED REALITY ON A 2.5D MODEL OF A RETAIL ITEM, STORES CAN GENERATE NEW LEVELS OF POSITIVE AND DIFFERENTIATED ONLINE SHOPPING EXPERIENCES.

Potential Challenges

There are two clichés that are important here. Image is everything and garbage in, garbage out. Getting good imagery to create the 2.5D virtual environment is important to the overall experience. But the better the quality of an image, the more page loading time will increase. At the same time, the more compressed an image is, the lower the quality will be.

Developers might need to balance these performance requirements against the potential local differences of a customer’s wireless connection performance. In addition, proper stitching of the environment is paramount to technical accuracy. This ensures the images the customer sees are actually for the right location and product, and that they are visually pleasing.

Also, stores would be limited in how often they might want to change product locations or in performing store redesigns. This is of course unless they are willing to also redo the panoramic imagery of the store after it has been changed.

A New Shopping Experience

With good planning, development, and execution, a whole new shopping experience is possible. Now a customer can open their browser, whether on a computer, smartphone, or tablet, and visit the online store with an experience that simulates a real visit. A customer can virtually walk the aisles of the store.

Once they see an item they like, the 2.5D imagery lets them further explore it in a way more like the real world. If they select an item, the intelligent application can be made to register the affiliated nearby barcode for the product to call up pricing and, if desired, inventory details about the product. The AR overlaid will help the customer with additional information or add to an enriched product experience.

Online shopping is changing the face of the retail experience. The pandemic has thrust brick and mortars to more quickly adapt than even before to online shopping. Companies that can more speedily and elegantly adapt to the experience customers want will be best positioned to keep or grow their customer base in a post-pandemic economy.

Amy Gu

Amy Gu is a co-founder of Dynamsoft, a software company focused on software development kits for document imaging, scanning and barcode reader web and desktop applications. Amy holds a Ph.D. in computer science. She was an associate professor at the Artificial Intelligence Institute at Zhejiang University. She was also a visiting scholar at the University of British Columbia and an exchange professor at Simon Fraser University.

Three Things Canadian Brick-and-Mortar Retailers Should Learn from COVID-19

By
Retail Insider
-
A THRIVING ECOMMERCE PLATFORM IS VITAL FOR SMBS.

By David Gens, CEO of Merchant Growth

After many weeks of patiently waiting, the majority of Canada is well into Phase 2, meaning many Canadian brick-and-mortar small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are reopening. While this may sound exciting for most, this is an extremely crucial time for SMB owners to be looking at their finances, to create a solid plan in order to survive post-pandemic. I am hopeful that Phase 2 will give retailers a chance to get back to work and make up for the loss of profit over the past four months, if they remain agile and follow these three learnings: .

1. E-commerce Capabilities

Brick-and-mortar retailers were impacted heavily by COVID-19, there’s no doubt about it. The pandemic forced these SMBs to shut their doors, and in some cases resulting in a revenue drop to zero, leaving them with a very uncertain future. Although the government has taken action, including emergency loans and rent subsidies, like CEBA or the CECRA for small businesses who are operating at half capacity, more will need to be done as they move into Phase 2. The reality is, and many SMB owners know this, that many people who receive funding from the government will still have to apply for additional funding.

Brick-and-mortar stores are at a disadvantage because many have never needed and often do not have a budget for digital marketing. However, when the pandemic hit, every single business needed to act as if they were an e-commerce store, which resulted in the 126% increase in online sales across Canada in April. COVID-19 has rapidly changed the game for e-commerce sites and unfortunately left brick-and-mortar stores to play catch up by getting creative, and fast.

For the past decade, I’ve run a company called Merchant Growth that has been supporting thousands of SMBs, many of which are brick-and-mortar first companies, through lending them millions of dollars to help them grow. As we slowly enter into new phases of the pandemic, we are still learning the importance of e-commerce capabilities, especially for brick-and-mortar stores, and the role they need to take if they want to keep up with online platforms. E-commerce is challenging brick-and-mortar stores and shifting the way retailers need to think in 2020. COVID-19 has demonstrated how important it is to have an e-commerce strategy, to support the overall health of the business. We’ve seen initiatives like shopHERE, who have helped brick-and-mortar businesses get online and go digital. Throughout the pandemic, we have also prioritized creating an e-commerce lending program to support businesses in pivoting to enter the digital market.

DIGITAL MARKETING WILL LEVERAGE YOUR SMB.

2. Always-On Marketing

2020 has also shown us the importance of always communicating with our customers and community, and building those relationships up so businesses have consistent support in the tough times. The pandemic has driven a shift to e-commerce and without a strong digital marketing and communications plan, many brick-and-mortar businesses are missing the opportunity to continue communicating online with their consumers. The past four months have revealed many consumer trends and we know that consumers are more motivated than ever before, to shop online while staying safe from the comfort of their home.

I encourage brick-and-mortar stores to pivot and focus on building a strong online communications strategy and prioritize digital marketing. Some benefits of digital marketing include, creating an ideal market condition for consumers, the ability to quickly test and launch new products and ideas, and to meet all touchpoints of consumer interaction. If SMB owners adopt an “always-on marketing” approach they have the opportunity to rebuild their business at a much faster pace. Moving into Phase 2, if SMB owners can engage with customers digitally and offer their products online and in store, they will be able to target a wider range of consumers and perhaps connect with new customers.

PLAN AHEAD TO FUTURE-PROOF YOUR SMB.

3. Having a Plan

If COVID-19 taught us anything as business owners, it’s taught us to have a crisis plan. Having a plan is crucial to the survival of any business. COVID-19 dramatically impacted the stability of the Canadian economy and specifically the financial futures of SMBs. It’s in this time that we need to lean on our neighbours for support and identify a plan that will set our futures up for financial success.

As business owners, having a plan for a crisis as well as a plan on how to manage a crisis once it’s over is the first step to ensuring your business’s success. Throughout COVID-19, 92% of small businesses disclosed they were experiencing negative financial effects and were unprepared for what was to come. In order to avoid an extreme financial crisis, SMB owners will need to take their communications and business plan to the next level, preparing for everything and anything to happen. Right now, if you are a SMB owner who is looking to rebuild your business, start by assessing your businesses financial damage. The first step in recovering from the pandemic is to understand the financial state your business is in and how deeply it was affected. Know there are resources available to support you through this process. Along with government aid, utilize fintech lenders in your community, to help you get back onto your feet and rebuild your business.

As we shift and move into new phases and begin to understand what a post-pandemic world will look like for SMB retailers, I am hopeful that we will have the opportunity to work together as a community to build a brighter and more stable future. Above all, my hope is that brick-and-mortar stores now realize the importance of staying innovative, keeping a pulse on their competition and begin to integrate a digital marketing strategy into their post-pandemic business plan.

David Gens

David Gens is an award-winning business leader who is passionate about helping Canadian small businesses grow and find the financing they need. David is the Founder and CEO of Merchant Growth, which grew from its humble beginnings in his apartment to offices in both Toronto and Vancouver. He now leads one of Canada’s largest online small business finance companies.

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