Canadian retail has adapted to constant change, from accelerated e-commerce adoption to supply disruptions and stubborn inflation. Yet the holiday season continues to grow. Last year’s Black Friday set a record with a seven percent year-over-year lift, a sign that consumer demand persists even as shoppers work harder to find value, confidence and convenience in every purchase. Google frames that trio as a “new value equation,” and it sits at the center of what the company calls Canada’s first AI-powered holiday season.
Eric Morris, Managing Director of Retail at Google Canada, told reporters that change has become retail’s constant. “Every year it feels like things are changing, and the change actually is a constant for retail here in Canada,” he said. He noted that while retailers head into Q4 with uncertainty, “every single year, retail is a growth industry in Canada,” which is why winning the weeks before, during and after the peak days matters so much. He added that the biggest shopping day is often a few days before Christmas, not the headline-grabbing tentpoles.
Morris also pointed to bifurcated demand signals. Searches for value players are up, while luxury brand searches also rise. “It’s not that all Canadians are looking for value or all are looking to splurge,” he said. “It depends on where households are at and what they are buying in that moment.”
Inside the data: research-heavy journeys and AI in the cart
New Google-commissioned research with Ipsos and Angus Reid shows how intensely researched the season has become in Canada. Eighty-seven percent of Canadians are thinking about or shopping for someone else during the holidays, which makes decisions more complex. On average, Canadians shop 3.6 categories over any two-day period in season, rising to 4.1 categories for Gen Z. Nearly two-thirds of Gen Z use 10 or more resources for their holiday shopping. Seventy-three percent of all purchases last season were researched first, and almost half of purchases happened after at least a week of consideration.
Most notably, 43% of Canadian holiday shoppers plan to use AI tools to research and decide their purchases this year. Google argues that this makes 2025 the first AI-powered holiday season for the Canadian market.
Alyza Keshavjee, Google Canada’s Head of Consumer Insights, called AI “an indispensable tool” across the entire funnel. “Forty-three percent of Canadians plan to use AI for their shopping, making this Canada’s first truly AI powered holiday,” she said. She described the emerging “AI Shopper” as digitally native, often Gen Z and millennial, and on average higher income, a cohort that “retailers need to pay attention to as they drive growth and set future trends.”
The research breaks down where Canadians expect AI to help. About 31 percent say AI is useful for discovery and short-listing options. Forty-one percent expect to use it to compare features, prices and deals, with nearly a quarter turning to AI to validate reviews and choices. Nineteen percent see AI helping post-purchase with setup and installation.
Keshavjee also highlighted stress and budget relief. A majority of Canadians who plan to use AI say it can reduce last-minute shopping stress, and one in four believe AI can help find gifts on a tight budget.
Categories where AI confidence is highest
Canadians are most comfortable taking AI recommendations in big-ticket, spec-heavy categories where choice overload is common. Consumer electronics and smartphones lead, followed by home appliances. Confidence remains strong in furniture and home décor, apparel and footwear, beauty and personal care, and even food and groceries.
That pattern tracks with how shoppers describe their pain points. When features, formats and SKUs proliferate, AI’s ability to summarize, compare and tailor becomes an advantage. It clarifies trade-offs, flags deals and availability, and points to reviews that matter. In Google’s language, AI is becoming a “shopping companion” that reduces cognitive load from first inspiration to post-purchase support.
What Google is launching: virtual try-on expands to Canada
Alongside the research, Google is rolling out an AI-based virtual try-on feature for apparel and shoes that connects personal photos with real product listings. Danielle Buckley, Product Management Director for Google Shopping, explained that the experience draws on Google’s Shopping Graph, which the company describes as the world’s most comprehensive set of products and retailers, frequently refreshed with billions of updates per hour.
“People shop on Google more than a billion times a day,” Buckley said, noting that AI underpins shopping on Search, the Shopping tab, Lens and Maps. She called out adoption of visual search, where Google says there are over 25 billion Lens queries per month, and one in four has commercial intent. “Snapping a photo of a product or circling it on a phone is now a direct doorway to commerce.”
Try-on is designed to increase confidence and add some fun back into online browsing. A shopper taps a product listing, hits Try it on, uploads a full-length photo, and the system generates an image showing what that garment might look like on them. “We built a custom image generation model just for fashion,” Buckley said. “It understands both the human body and nuances of clothing, how different materials fold, stretch and drape on different bodies.” She emphasized identity preservation, including face, body proportions and skin tone, and the garment’s visual accuracy across poses.
Buckley said early users report higher enjoyment, and they are sharing try-on images more than standard product listings, which fuels social-style shopping loops. She also confirmed that the feature is expanding internationally, including to Canada, with shoes rolling out alongside tops, bottoms and dresses.
For merchants, Buckley stressed accessibility. “There’s no special thing you need to do to light that up, aside from making sure we’re getting high quality imagery of your products,” she said. If brands prefer to opt out, they can do so in Merchant Center or via support. The company does not currently share try-on specific usage data back to merchants, although standard listing metrics remain available in Merchant Center.
The retailer playbook: five moves to make now
Google crystallizes its guidance into five actions that align with how Canadians now shop and how AI surfaces products and content. First, retailers should set explicit business goals for the season, whether revenue, profitability, sell-through, new-to-brand or market share, and then match tools and tactics to those goals.
Second, they should engage early and stay present across the season’s curve, not just on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Third, they should make the online-to-in-store journey seamless, with accurate store hours, location details, inventory, delivery timelines and returns. Fourth, they should improve product content for AI discovery, with rich descriptions, structured data and strong imagery so AI can parse and present it. Fifth, they should connect with shoppers through video on YouTube, including creator partnerships that build product confidence.
Morris put a finer point on the third and fourth items. “If you have stores, make sure Canadians can find your stores, that your business listings are accurate, your reviews are present, your hours are accurate,” he said. He added that the more high-quality product data retailers share, the more likely AI tools are to surface those products when consumers are looking.
Why adoption matters now
In a group interview, Morris was asked whether retailers will fall behind fast-moving competitors if they do not adopt AI. Morris argued that AI can narrow capability gaps in both directions. Large domestic chains can close distance with global platforms, while small and medium-sized retailers can close gaps with national incumbents. “AI can just do it more quickly and more efficiently, and again close the gap with competitors,” he said.
Buckley added that many AI features ride on feeds and assets merchants already provide. If a retailer is present in the Shopping Graph with complete, high-quality data, its offers are eligible to appear in AI-enhanced experiences without bespoke integration. That practicality matters heading into the season. With shoppers researching earlier and longer, retailers that clean up feeds, titles, attributes and imagery now will show up more consistently when it counts.
Stress, budgets and the human side of holiday shopping
Keshavjee said shoppers view AI as a pressure valve. “A significant majority who plan to use AI agree that it can help reduce last-minute shopping stress,” she said, pointing to the fast, structured comparisons that AI provides. Budget sensitivity is also top of mind. “We already see that twenty-five percent of consumers think AI will help them find gifts on a tight budget.”
She illustrated the point with a personal example. Preparing for a Halloween party, she asked Gemini for décor ideas, then used AI to compare options, check prices and watch setup videos. “AI truly was my shopping companion through that journey,” she said. The story mirrors the research showing that Canadians want help discovering ideas, narrowing choices, validating reviews and completing setup, not just finding a product page.
The stakes across the full calendar, not just peak days
Morris reminded retailers that winning the season is a marathon. The weeks before Black Friday, the Cyber period, and the stretch to Christmas all matter, especially because Canadians keep shopping at elevated levels well after Cyber Monday. That means measurement and agility are important. Clear goals and an instrumentation plan make it easier to shift budgets toward what is working in real time, whether that is leaner creative focused on deal-seeking queries or richer video content that builds product confidence.
The data supports this full-season posture. With 73 percent of purchases researched in advance and nearly half made after a week or more, there are many touchpoints where an offer, review, product video or inventory signal can influence the outcome. Retailers who are visible, consistent and accurate at each step will convert more of that research into sales.
How to prepare content for AI discovery
Google’s advice to “improve product content for AI discovery” is pragmatic. Retailers should ensure that titles, attributes and bullet-level details in product feeds mirror how Canadians actually search. Imagery should be clear, consistent and diverse enough to answer common questions about fit, finish and scale. On-site product pages should include original descriptions and helpful context that AI models can parse and summarize. For physical stores, Business Profiles should be complete and regularly maintained. When those foundations are in place, AI-driven surfaces have more to work with, which raises relevancy and reduces mis-matches.
Buckley underscored that high-quality imagery does more than convert on a product page. It can unlock emerging experiences like try-on, where accurate drape, fit and colour reproduction are essential. She said the team prioritized identity preservation and garment realism because shopper trust depends on both. If brands are not ready or comfortable, opt-out is available, but the direction of travel is clear. Visual and social shopping are blending, and shoppers want to see products on real bodies before they buy.
The bottom line for Canadian retail
The data is unambiguous. Canadians research more, take longer to decide, and now plan to use AI at meaningful scale during the holidays. For retailers, the opportunity is not simply to “add AI,” but to meet shoppers where AI is helping them most. That means enabling better discovery, streamlining comparisons, building product confidence with rich media and reviews, smoothing the handoff to stores and delivery, and reducing stress with clear timelines and returns.
This is why Google calls 2025 Canada’s first AI-powered holiday season. It is not the first year AI appeared in marketing stacks, but it is the first where a broad share of Canadians expects AI to guide their shopping. Retailers that prepare their data, content and store networks for that reality will be easier to find and trust, online and in person.
