Canadian Retailer - Winter 2013 - 4

PUBLISHER'S DESK

WINTER 2013 | VOLUME 23 ISSUE 1

publisher

This industry’s
always changing

Diane J. Brisebois
s e n i o r v i c e - p r e s i d e n t, m e m b e r s h i p

Andrew Siegwart

TRENDS TO WATCH IN 2013

editor-in- chief

Sean C. Tarry
(416) 922-0553, ext. 286
starry@retailcouncil.org
art direction

Scope Media
www.scopemedia.ca
contributors

Andrew Hind, D'Arcy Jenish,
Eve Lazarus, Robert Price
d i r e c t o r o f p u b l i c at i o n s

Bob Phillips
rphillips@naylor.com
project manager

Alana Place
aplace@naylor.com
sales manager

Bill McDougall
bmcdougall@naylor.com
editorial office

1255 Bay Street, Suite 800
Toronto, Ontario M5R 2A9
Phone: (416) 922-6678 | Fax: (416) 922-8011
www.retailcouncil.org
a d v e r t i s i n g/ p r o d u c t i o n o f f i c e

Naylor (Canada), Inc.
300 – 1630 Ness Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3J 3X1
Phone: (800) 665-2456 | Fax: (800) 709-5551
www.naylor.com
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Please note the opinions expressed in Canadian
Retailer do not necessarily reﬂect those of Retail
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TO HELP guide the content that will
be featured within future RCC publications and research projects, we
took the opportunity in the New Year
to chat with many of you about the
trends that are affecting your businesses. And as I sat down to write
this, it occurred to me that the information shared would make for an
informative and interesting editorial
for the ﬁrst Canadian Retailer issue
of 2013.
So, in no particular order, here
are some of the trends that many of
you believe we should pay particular attention to in the year to come.
Several contributor and research
partners have also suggested that
these are not only trends worthy of
attention, but are recent developments that will shape the retail industry in Canada and the world. The
list is long and somewhat daunting.
But who said that retail was easy or
predictable?

Every waking moment is a shopping moment

Consumers want to live their lives
24/7, whether that involves eating,
shopping, exercising, working, or
anything else. And businesses will
be expected to cater to those expectations via multi-channel formats.
The survival of brick & mortar

The traditional brick and mortar
retail format will be challenged, and
the growth in online access highlights the need for physical space to
truly connect with customers in order to survive. Providing a compelling and unique in-store experience
with highly trained and knowledgeable customer-centric staff will be
essential in winning the consumer.

canadian retailer | winter 2013 | www.retailcouncil.org/cdnretailer

Whatever you want—click-andcollect shopping

Retailers will look to the ability to
precisely customize an offer via real
time access to inventory. This helps
improve in-stock fulﬁllment and ties
together the online and offline world
—a true multi-channel approach.
“Click-and-collect” melds the worlds
of digital and physical commerce by
allowing customers to order product
online, and then pick up the goods
at a nearby store location. It’s hyperconvenient, meeting the range of
preferences of today’s consumer.
Business to consumer and
business to partner relationships

As the peer-powered marketplace
continues to heat up, look for established brands to strike partnerships
with ﬂedgling peer-to-peer services
in an effort to refresh and modernize their personas, broaden their
appeal or to inﬂuence an existing
consumer segment to consider the
brand in a new light.
Individual attention and
predictive personalization

During a time when many transactions are digitized, consumers are
increasingly seeking out friendly
faces that can cater to their individual needs. With data analysis more
cost effective and consumers generating more data than ever, it will

http://www.scopemedia.ca http://www.retailcouncil.org http://www.naylor.com http://www.retailcouncil.org/cdnretailer

Canadian Retailer - Winter 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - Winter 2013