Canadian Retailer - Store 2015 - 23

SYLVAIN PRUD'HOMME ON OMNI-CHANNEL
Data is helping us understand what the true
omni-channel model is. We're finding out information in the data about the omni-channel
customer that we never would have guessed
before. We're seeing first-hand their behaviour across all the different channels, including
when they shop on them. Leveraging this kind
of information properly can be a game-changer.

BALDWIN: Much of the big data that's being
collected by retailers and other companies today is collected online. And it's no wonder, since
online is the virtual space where people all over
the world congregate, chat, share, and connect.
And they're buying things online, too. According to Statistics Canada, businesses within the
country sold more than $136 billion worth of
goods and services over the Internet last year,
up from $122 billion the year before. Clearly, the
appetite for ecommerce is growing. What strategies are you employing to meet this increasing
customer need, and how are you remaining competitive in the world of online sales?
ROSEN: Online sales represent about two per

cent of our business. Ultimately I see it falling
into five to seven per cent of our business. It's a
moving target, but we're really starting to understand the opportunity that online represents and
how it segments. It's our strategy and our focus
to make online an extension of our associates
and bring the service component of in-store online. The experience for our customer has to be
seamless, whether they are engaging with us instore or online. We believe it's the biggest opportunity that online presents for our business-to
enable us to enhance further our strong client
relationships.

DINAN: Online presents us with a platform to

broaden our assortment. It's a huge opportunity for us. We're building larger stores today, but
there's so much more assortment available and
we want to make it accessible to our customers.
To enable this, our store associates are equipped
with tablets. They can tap into our entire inventory, and if we don't have the size or colour request in one of our particular stores our associates can place an order and have it delivered to
the customer's home or to the store. We're also
working on leveraging vendor assortments to
sell straight from their inventory. But, we really
want it all to be seamless for the customer.

www.retailcouncil.org/cdnretailer

PRUD'HOMME: We're pushing really hard on the develop-

ment of our endless aisle. We're a home improvement retailer.
And when you think of the scope of assortment available to
our customer, it's mind-boggling. Our associates also have the
ability to access our products through computers in the store
and to share that access and information with customers. This
allows for a more intimate retail experience and increased engagement between the customer and our associates.

BEBIS: Ecommerce is very complicated for our category.

There's a lot of risk involved in serving alcohol online, and
so it's quite expensive to do so. But we do click-and-pick with
our Wine and Beyond superstores. They're 25,000 square-feet,
carrying 8,000 wines, 800 scotches, 400 vodkas and 2,000
craft beers in stock. And we have 82 convenience stores in Edmonton. We list our Wine and Beyond selection on the Liquor
Depot website. Customers can order a $300 scotch at Liquor
Depot in the morning and pick it up at the convenience store
in the afternoon. We're experimenting with the model and
figuring out how to best leverage it for our business.

STORE 2015 | CANADIAN RETAILER

| 23

http://www.retailcouncil.org/cdnretailer

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - Store 2015