Canadian Retailer - Holiday 2016 - 18

KPMG EXECUTIVE ROUNDTABLE

e-commerce. Instead, e-commerce has become a collaborative effort between
operations, marketing and IT. As a result, we've been able to open up our entire
inventory to every customer throughout the country. More than 50 per cent of
the product we ship, we ship from the store closest to the customer's postal code,
not from our warehouse. We take returns back anywhere, and our staff assumes
that's the way business is done. Our leadership has determined that there is no
channel that has ultimate power over any other. It's enabled us to do a lot.
Des Roches: We built our own e-commerce system to support the needs

of our customers, and we haven't had any serious challenges with it. Even
though we're a small, independent retailer, we've recognized the need to be
in as many places as our customer wants us to be, and to be able to make
product available whenever and wherever they want to access it. For us, that
means enabling our click-and-collect and delivery capabilities. The biggest
challenge we've found is simply managing the expectations of our consumers, because when they become used to receiving a certain level of service,
they don't ever want to experience anything less from us.

+20%
2014

2015

Online shopping
In November and December
2015, online sales increased
20% over the previous year.
But it still represented only
9.84% of total retail sales
during the period.
Source: According to data from
Mastercard

Lawson: The most important consideration we need to make when developing our omnibusiness strategy is to understand exactly what our customers
are expecting from us. Do they want to shop with us primarily in-store? Do
they want to click-and-collect from us? Are they going to be looking for delivery services? And because our customers span more than a few consumer
segments, we need to also understand how each of those segments want to
interact with us and then figure out, based on the rate of adoption, how to
seamlessly make it all happen.
Kruh: As part of the global survey
I do with CEOs, I like to ask them
about the things that are keeping
them up at night. Engendering customer loyalty is one of those things today. Having the right mix of products
and service is another. But, clearly
ahead of any other concern today
is that of technology and whether
or not their companies are keeping
current with the latest technological
innovations and advancements. It's
clear there's a lot to consider when
making investments into technology
today. Where are you in your current
quest to remain on the curve when it
comes to technology in your stores
and behind the scenes supporting
your operations?
Bennison: As we design our ultimate guest journey, technology is of
course top-of-mind. We are finding it critical to have a strong filter when
considering all of the possible investments. You've got to understand
which technologies are actually going to deliver more value to your
consumer versus being nice-to-haves. Does it allow us to understand the
needs of individual guests and target them more productively? Can it
make our inventory and supply chains more efficient and reliable? Can
the consumer locate products easily? Can they pay for them easily? Does
it allow space for the value added human interaction in the retail space?
Technology needs to make the process easier for the customer, ultimately
enabling great service and an exceptional experience.

18 |

CANADIAN RETAILER | The Loss Prevention Issue

High tech
85% of Canadian CEOs worry
about whether
they are keeping
current with new
technologies
Source: KPMG CEO
Survey 2016

20%

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - Holiday 2016