Four innovations Canadian retailers should be watching
Credit to Author: Evan Duggan| Date: Thu, 28 Nov 2019 23:00:22 +0000
Canadian retailers are falling behind when it comes to innovation.
Consumer behaviours have changed and retailers have to recognize that it’s no longer business as usual, said Craig Patterson, a Canadian retail consultant and editor-in-chief of Retail Insider.
He said Asian retailers, particular in China and South Korea, have been making the most dramatic innovations, many of them technological. And as traditional Canadian retailers continue to run themselves out of business, international retailers will continue to eye Canadian expansions to fill the gaps.
“I don’t think some retailers have figured that out yet in Canada, because you almost have to travel and see what’s happening in other parts of the world,” he said.
Patterson revealed and described four major retail innovations that should have Canadian retailers on high alert.
We’re already seeing big e-commerce players like Amazon doing this well in Canada, but most other Canadian retailers are falling behind the delivery expectations of Canadian consumers.
“The consumer wants what they want, how and when they want it, and that’s not happening with some retailers,” Patterson said. “It’s expensive and takes co-ordination.”
Patterson said Hema, a grocery retail chain by Chinese giant Alibaba, has more than 60 high-tech physical stores in China but has also created a seamless mobile app. Items ordered via the Hema app can be delivered in less than an hour to customers’ homes.
Many Canadian online purchases for some products can take several days, if not weeks, Patterson said.
Major players overseas are able to use tech such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality to personalize the consumer in-store experience.
“You can walk into a store and opt in to certain communications,” Patterson said. That could be a text message tailored to your shopping history that makes product suggestions or notifies you of sales on products you typically purchase.
We’re also seeing new tech like virtual mirrors in overseas stores, or virtual-reality goggles or phone apps that can reveal what you would look like in a certain outfit, or how a piece of furniture would look overlaid on an image of your living room.
A typical Canadian shopping centre likely has a food court with the usual fast-food suspects. That food court might comprise 10 per cent of a shopping centre’s footprint, Patterson said.
In many Asian cities, shopping centres have entire floors dedicated to a variety of highly curated and unique dining and beverage options. Up to 40 per cent of some large shopping centres are dedicated just to food, Patterson said.
“This leads to increased number of visits and dwell-time,” he said.
Patterson said payment apps like WeChat Pay and AliPay are already becoming common in Asia. Not so much here in Canada.
Earlier this month, the owner of the China-based Foody Mart grocery chain said the company is considering introducing payment by Chinese-made facial recognition devices at its stores in Ontario and B.C.
“Retailers now really have to make experiences like payment seamless,” Patterson said.
But facial payments are in the early stages here and might meet major resistance. “I think (facial recognition payment) is controversial,” Patterson said. “Will it be rolled out here? I don’t know. We are a little more worried about our privacy.
“I’m sure people will be asking questions,” he said. “What data are they collecting on me?”