STORE 2013 – Recap of the Show!

It’s been a busy week since OrderDynamics exhibited at the STORE 2013 Conference in Toronto. On June 4 and 5, OrderDynamics exhibited at the Retail Council of Canada’s biggest annual event, celebrating 50 years of retail evolution, and showcasing retail expertise and insights into upcoming industry trends. This year’s show, as with many others, displayed a dedicated focus on the growing need for retailers to invest in omni-channel solutions, the migration of US brands up to Canada, and to begin to prioritize social media marketing.

STORE 2013 Main Entrance at the Toronto Congress Centre

STORE 2013 kicked off with a keynote address with the RCC’s President and CEO, Diane Brisebois, followed by a the main morning session by the President of Target Canada, Tony Fisher. Tony’s session, entitled the Evolving Retail Landscape, discussed how technology has made the world smaller making it necessary for the popular US native retailer to make its entry into Canada – Target’s largest single-year expansion to date.  The session also addressed the challenges behind taking a patriotic American brand, and making the experience offered north of the border uniquely Canadian by tailoring each store to the preferences of the community in which it is located, and utilizing their blog – A Bullseye View – to engage customers and drive sales.

Tony Fisher of Target Canada

OrderDynamics also attended the Omni-Channel and the Integrated Consumer panel session. The discussion featured executives from the Canadian Tire Corp (which encompasses Canadian Tire, Sports Chek and Mark’s Work Warehouse), Etsy, and Indigo sharing their experiences in adapting their business model toward accommodating consumers’ omni-channel -connectedness. Erin Green of Etsy shared the pure play online shop’s strategy to not create their own retail outlets, but partner with other popular retailers and their brick-and-mortar locations to set up pop-up shops highlighting successful Etsy sellers’ items to build awareness of their online channel. Michael Smith of Indigo simply stated that it was necessary to implement an omni-channel retail strategy given their vast selection of products – an online store was the only way customers would ever be able to see Indigo’s product offering in its overwhelming entirety.

Duncan Fulton of Canadian Tire Corp shared some very interesting insights, having spoken about identifying which of their three retail brands was the best to test their proposed strategies before implementing them across all brands, stating that the smaller and younger Sports Chek audience is more forgiving than the larger and older Mark’s demographic, which isn’t all too concerned with a consistent omni-channel experience. He touched on showrooming and loyalty programs, stating that the experiences retailers provide in either arena need to be game-changing and thrill customers in order to actually work, especially if a brand cannot offer the lowest price on an item. The most thoughtful thing Duncan said was, “if you’re not working on omni-channel now, you won’t be able to keep up in 10 years”.

Omni-Channel and the Integrated Consumer Panel Discussion: Michael Smith of Indigo, Erin Green of Etsy, Duncan Fulton of Canadian Tire Corp., hosted by Marc Saltzman

STORE’s Annual Leadership Panel was also a highly informative and engaging discussion between the presidents of Toys ‘R’ US Canada and Staples Canada, along with the Managing Director of Google Canada. Together they touched on omni-channel retail, showrooming, social media and SEO, and risk management including testing same-day delivery. The social media conversation was especially interesting, as the benefits of it within an omni-channel marketing strategy has been long debated. Steve Matyas of Staples Canada labelled social media as “a necessary equal,” whose payback may not be obvious, but the level of service customers derive from it still needs to be there. Chris O’Neil of Google added that retailers and businesses have been measuring the wrong things with respect to analyzing the value of investing in social media: “instead of revenue, measure loyalty and engagement”. He elaborated that social media is an extension of real-time marketing which “is here, it’s happening, and you can either fear it, or lean into it”.

The STORE Annual Leadership Panel: Kevin MacNab of Toys 'R' Us Canda, Steve Matyas of Staples Canada, Chris O'Neil of Google Canada, hosted by Willy Kruh

Showrooming, the concept that has been instilling panic in retailers since mid 2012, was addressed as ‘more than just a price conversation’, but also allowing the customer the opportunity to choose where to shop on multiple levels. A customer should be given the option to decide to buy from one brand vs. another based on customer service, in-store experience, or the availability of multiple items they need in one place.

Perhaps the most interesting statement during the Leadership Panel Discussion came from Chris O’Neil with respect to omni-channel retail, stating that those who do not yet recognize the need for omni-channel need to understand that a digital consumer cannot be separated from a brick-and-mortar consumer – a customer is a customer, period.

The STORE 2013 exhibit hall

STORE 2013 was also home to an inspiring keynote session by Nordstrom Canada, sharing key strategies on their current success and move into Canada, as well as the RCC’s inaugural Grocery and Consumer Goods Symposium. OrderDynamics is extremely proud to have been able to exhibit and be a part of the audience to such knowledgeable speakers. We greatly appreciated the insights we were able to take away from the 2-day conference, as well as the engaging conversations we had on the show floor. We look forward to next year’s STORE Conference!

The OrderDynamics Booth at STORE 2013