Canadian Retailer - Store 2016 - 19

Sjostrand: We're also quite active on social media. For example, we recently opened a pop-up store on King Street in
Toronto and had a master chef join us for the day as part of our
SEKTION House of Kitchens campaign. We generated a lot
of buzz and were trending on Twitter. Digital communication
lets us engage with our customers effectively and immediately. We try to respond to each email we get within 24 hours,
and social media comments within four hours. It's all about
customer expectations and how you live up to them.
Soleas: I'm not sure how easy it is to measure the ROI but
we're becoming more involved in social media. The majority
of our consultants are not just passionate, they're very knowledgeable about the products as well. Many have their own following and will respond to their own customers. It's difficult to
measure the return on that.

Simpson: Millennials are without doubt the
most-connected customers. They're the first
generation of digital natives. To understand
them and win them over, we focus on their
core values and desires. Millennials are
life maximizers. They see 'ordinary' as the
enemy, which fits well with the Holts brand.
They've grown up in a world where 'likes'
are supremely important, and they want to
be the first to discover great new brands,
experiences and hot new restaurants. It's all
very important to them-a big part of their
social and personal brand cachet. They're
culturally curious and possess a very brave
approach to fashion. They aren't just going to
shop on their own terms-they're going to live
on their own terms. Within the next year, millennials will represent over 50% of our customer base and we continue to work hard to
understand and connect with them in ways
they care about.

Longo: When you look at Instagram, the third-highest item
posted is food. Number one is the selfie and number two is
pets. This tells you something about how people share their
experiences and what's important to them. Food is a big part of
their lives. We follow these trends
and are on social sites. We originally outsourced the social media
"If you aren't able to
work but brought it back in-house
engage that customer on
two years ago because we realized
a level they can apprecithat someone outside of our organate and respect, they'll
ization can't represent our voice
go somewhere else to
accurately or quickly enough. In
terms of ROI, we're always pushing
buy that same item. Our
our marketing team to tell us what
associates need to know
every dollar spent in digital means.

and understand our
products intimately."

Kruh: There are currently nine
million millennials in Canada-27
- DAVID RUSSELL
Sporting Life
per cent of the population. There
are 2.5 billion of them across
the globe-one third of the total
world's population. They collectively possess over $70-billion in
purchasing power. And by 2018,
they're going to have more spending power than any other Longo: Millennials are a huge demographic
generation, eclipsing the boomers. In North America alone, for us. They're very interested in shopping
millennials stand to inherit $30 trillion. They're incredibly local. And they tend to take corporate social
tech-savvy and the most highly educated, under-employed responsibility very seriously. They're at the
generation we've ever seen. Millennials also possess traits front of issues like animal welfare and the dethat differ from other generations. They thrive on experi- mand for cage-free eggs. And they are influences and are focused on happiness, passion, discovery, encing their parents when it comes to these
sharing and diversity.
topics-what their parents eat, their health
With these characteristics in mind, how are you viewing and wellness. They also ask a lot of questions
them as consumers? And what does it mean for your busi- about where their food comes from and the
ness as you figure out how they prefer to be engaged, how ingredients used. They like information-and
they like to shop and what motivates them to purchase and the better-informed we keep millennials, the
interact with retailers?
more trust we build with them.

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