So, you finally got there! You got your brand listed at some major retailers who will be a game changer […] The post Beauty Brands: How to Stay Listed at Key Retailers (What Retailers Will Never Tell You) first appeared on Marketsupport Canada ..read more

If you are a retailer reading this blog, we will be controversial and repeat the question – do you agree that customer service at retail is dead? We would argue that you shouldn’t worry about this and here is why. Over the past two decades, the boom in technology and digitization has led retailers to leverage technology to reduce labour costs. But the dream to digitize processes at retail has come at the expense of customer experience. Yet, instead of caring, this continues. Remember the days of clerks who bagged your food, attendants who pumped your gas and a friendly exchange at the checkout ..read more

Canadian households are reducing their spending which has led to an era of cost cutting and price wars at retail. Among the issues at play is the housing crises in many of the most populated urban cities in Canada (like Toronto and Vancouver), an increased overall cost of living, an increased cost of gasoline and an increased cost of home heating. These issues are leading Canadians to change the way they spend money and look for ways to find savings in their budgets. One of primary ways in which Canadian families are trimming their budgets is the way they spend when grocery shopping, including ..read more

There is no doubt that Canadians are counting their dollars and cents more than ever, especially with an inflation rate that hasn’t given them a chance to breath. Add to that new taxation impacting the cost of everything. From home heating to gasoline, consumers have been forced to separate wants from needs. That places you in a tough position where brand loyalty is concerned because, in some cases, brands have entered a Game of Thrones level of price wars. Especially in a climate where consumers are being very cost conscious, as a recent study highlighted, not only can you count on brand loya ..read more

Ahhh self-checkout. We all thought it would be the “win” right? Innovation, faster service and, of course, reduced labour costs. Self-checkout was touted as potentially replacing the need to have retail employees at all checkout counters. Well, the opposite has proven to be the case with many major national and international retailers deciding to bow out of the self-checkout game. Some of the reasons include: Maintenance cost of technology (terminals and supporting software). Inventory management issues at point of sale. Technical issues impacting customer experience at point of sale. Increas ..read more

When we think of innovation, we think of doing something completely outside of the box – new and innovative. Rothmans Benson and Hedges exemplifies. You likely know the brand as being a famous Canadian tobacco brand. Think Benson and Hedges Symphony of Fire. If you are Torontonian, you know the reference. As we all know cigarettes cause cancer, make millions sick and cause hundreds of thousands of deaths annually. This is because tobacco is laden with carcinogens (cancer causing substances). Rothmans Benson and Hedges realized that they needed to innovate, but not only did they innovate, they ..read more

Summer is almost here, and the holiday weekends are coming!  Be sure your products and promotions are set for selling success during your busiest time of year! If you don’t currently have a dedicated team or only partial coverage our Summer Store Execution Booster that covers the three major long weekends in Canada during the summer, is the solution to ensure you maximize revenue potential on those very important weekends. See the PDF link for complete program details and how you can take advantage of group pricing based on all our client’s coverage. You can also reach out to me here by r ..read more

The explosion of eCommerce at retail and the option of at-home delivery has had people speculating that traditional retail is dead. From employee-less Amazon stores to curbside pick-up, digitized ordering is just about everywhere you go. The result: brands are scrambling to modernize and keep ahead of trends to maintain their profitability. Yet, in the race to modernize, there is one aspect of retail that brands did not consider–the customer experience. This includes how much people enjoy: The social aspect of shopping with friends and/or family The act of touching, testing, and seeing someth ..read more

Self-checkout, a win-win for everyone, right? It can mean less employee overhead and can empower customers to help themselves. Yet, many stores-even the big box stores-are doing away with self-checkout for three major reasons: cost/maintenance, customer experience, and inventory management challenges. We have written extensively about the customer experience and whether it even matters to retailers anymore. The challenge is that, if you are taking a “hands off approach”, the customer experience in your retail environment is, for the most part, controlled by them. This means you list and restoc ..read more

In late April, our corporate headquarters underwent a relocation after a decade in the same office building, prompting a much-needed refresh of our space. Taking charge of this endeavor, I embarked on a quest to explore current trends in décor and design, a task I hadn’t tackled since my home relocation in 2021. My first stop was Bouclair, a Canadian retailer known for its variety and style. Walking into their newly renovated local store, I was immediately struck by the dramatic transformation. The once-familiar interior now boasts sleek black walls that accent contemporary lighting and fixtur ..read more