Canadian Retailer - Summer 2013 - 28

MYSTORE technoloGY

Broadened choice and offering

Finkelstein likens it to the original concept of
the farmer’s market where all merchants had access to the same market and where consumers
could get to know the people behind the products they purchased and have the opportunity to
develop intimate relationships with the vendor,
allowing for more meaningful communication.
“All of the pillars of marketing are coming
together,” he says, adding the future of retail
should not be defined as online or offline; it
will be about offering consumers choice.
Although online only accounts for five per
cent of overall sales in Canada, that’s changing,
according to Finkelstein.
He says Shopify is on target to sell $1.5 billion in products globally this year.

“if you go online, you can sell to a
much broader range of people and
therefore a retailer's ability to develop
a unique, interesting and valuable
inventory is worth more.”
— DARREN MEISTER
Ivey Business School at Western University
One of those stores is Canadianicons.ca, an online retailer that specializes in “stories and treasures” from Canada, according to its website. Part
of the store’s appeal, notes Finkelstein, is that it
does more than sell a product. Take the Canada
Goose parka it sells. Aside from being able to purchase it online, shoppers can also learn about the
parka’s place in Canadian history.
“The timing is right,” he says. “People are
looking for this.”
Shopify is one of many new services making
it easier for independent retailers to get online. Another is Shopcaster. The networking ecommerce site acts like a virtual marketplace.
Retailers take photos of their products, upload
them and fill in the details such as pricing and
size. The item is posted to a marketplace with
Shopcaster taking care of the marketing, shipping, etc.
“We’ve made it super easy for them,” says
CEO Judy Sims. “There’s a lot of beautiful,
unique stuff out there. We wanted to unlock it
and put it online.
“They can compete if they’re in a marketplace environment, not on an island on their
own. There’s strength in numbers with them.”
More than 200 stores are now online with

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

Shopcaster and the service has expanded to include Vancouver, Montreal and New York. Sims
says consumer demand is driving the growth.
“There’s good customer support for independent stores. It doesn’t matter where they’re located,” she says. “There’s a notion that people like
independent retailers. There’s still a belief they
make communities viable.”
Filling the niche

There are numerous aspects of an e-commerce
site, both at the front and back end, that can help
create a seamless and positive user experience
and optimize performance for the retailer.
However, the most successful online retailers are, not surprisingly, those with a unique
product to sell, says Darren Meister, an e-commerce expert at Ivey Business School at Western University in London, Ontario.
“In conventional retailing, obviously, you
need to work very hard to be sure to have the
products in stock that your customers want to
buy and this is strongly influenced by the people
who live within reasonable proximity of your
store,” he says. “If you go online, you can sell to
a much broader range of people and therefore a
retailer's ability to develop a unique, interesting
and valuable inventory is worth more.”
Zelen Shoes exemplifies this. Although many
shoe companies sell online, Zelen Shoes has
patented a technology to custom design.
Tema Frank, host of the Frank Online Marketing Show and an e-marketing consultant in
Edmonton, says the leaders in e-commerce are
fashion designers and those with niche products. The most successful among them are those
who are leveraging their uniqueness in other
ways, such as outstanding customer service.
She cites Frank & Oak, a Montreal-based online clothing shop for men, as an example. The
company gives employees time every week to
write personalized thank you notes to its online customers.
“If you’re dealing with 100 to 1,000 customers every week versus 100,000 or higher, you’re
going to be able to offer more personalized service,” Frank says.
She adds that independent retailers are also
winning by negotiating agreements directly
with manufacturers and even competitors in another location. Frank worked with a toy store in
Edmonton that was able to make a deal with the
manufacturer of large play kitchens to set up a
distribution point in Toronto. This opened up
that market without increasing shipping costs.

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Canadian Retailer - Summer 2013

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