Brick and Mortar Retail Sales and Radio Ads Down

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Brick and Mortar Retail Sales and Radio Ads Down

Postby jon » Mon Dec 15, 2014 5:06 pm

In the Vancouver ratings thread, there was a lot of talk about the correlation between much smaller crowds in shopping malls and the reduced number of Christmas retail ads on Radio this year. At least, in Vancouver.

Before reading the article below, I already had a strong suspicion that the smaller mall crowds were related to the growth in on-line Christmas shopping. I remember being shocked last year before Christmas when a local friend said he did all his Christmas shopping on-line. Especially surprising since he had previously strongly favoured local retailers for the pre- and post-sales support.

This trend is not going to be the death of London Drugs, Home Depot, Staples or Walmart, though it may well do in Target. Those first four retailers are among many who have really got into the on-line shopping business in a much bigger way in the last couple of years. So much so that many items that used to be found in their brick and mortar stores are now available ONLY on-line. They have also added a lot of new products that are only sold on-line.

Local presence may, in fact, be the key to success in the future of on-line shopping. Last week, I read an article about someone planning to do battle with Amazon.com by offering something they don't: local pickup and return depots.

Why are the number of radio ads down this Christmas for local retailers? (at least at CKNW) My personal guess is that Radio Sales folks have not all yet figured how to sell radio ads for on-line shopping.

Online shopping growing quickly in Edmonton
By David Nixon, Edmonton Journal
December 15, 2014 3:33 PM

EDMONTON — More and more Edmontonians are avoiding crowded malls this holiday season by going online for their gifts.

Edmonton is Canada’s fourth fastest growing e-commerce centre for the 2014 holidays, up by 31 per cent since 2013 and behind only Vancouver, Calgary, and Victoria.

“What we’re seeing this year in particular is that Canadians are embracing online shopping in a really big way,” said Eugene Knapik, manager of media relations at Canada Post.

The figures are based on the company’s online orders for the 2014 holiday season to date, which make up about two-thirds of all parcels shipped from businesses to consumers in Canada.

Knapik said consumer demand and online retail sales have, in part, led to the higher volume.

“There are some major marketing pushes that were for some time exclusively American ­— ‘Black Friday’ and ‘Cyber Monday’ — which have become prevalent in Canada in the last couple years.”

Canada Post can’t release exact figures, but “the highest growth in Alberta is in purchases is from large mass merchants, followed by consumer electronics and telecommunications,” said Knapik. Parcels from Amazon, Walmart, and The Gap were all common sights at the plant.

Kyle Murray, director of the School of Retailing at the University of Alberta, said there are many factors contributing to Edmonton’s move toward online shopping.

“Being a growing, affluent, relatively wealthy population, that’s what [is driving] the e-commerce spending,” said Murray. “And if you look at the household income numbers, they’re a lot higher in Alberta than elsewhere in the country.”

E-commerce growth is nothing new. Canada Post has seen an increase of 20 per cent nationally since 2013 and Murray said it has been increasing 15-30 per cent a year since the 1990s. The market is still in its early stages compared to Canada’s southern neighbour, though.

“We don’t have as many options for online shopping as they do in the U.S.,” said Murray, “The Canadian market is still growing.”

For example, Murray pointed out that some of Canada’s major retailers like Canadian Tire still lack any significant e-commerce presence.

While Canada Post has seen most sales in Edmonton coming from major retailers, Murray said that’s not necessarily the case for the overall market.

“There are some little players doing a great job with online retail,” said Murray, mentioning online tools like Shopify which enable easy access to the e-commerce market.

Consumers will see Canadian retailers gradually adjust their business practices in the near future to respond to the online market growth.

“We’re already seeing some start to change the layout of their stores to be more showrooms for the online channel rather than stores you buy things in,” said Murray, who expects the e-commerce trend to continue.

“We’re still in the early stages of a real change in consumer behaviour and how retailers meet those needs.”

dnixon@edmontonjournal.com

Growth of Canada’s e-commerce centres in 2014, by number of packages:

Vancouver: 39 per cent

Calgary: 36 per cent

Victoria: 35 per cent

Edmonton: 31 per cent

St John: 21 per cent

Halifax: 19 per cent

Fredericton: 15 per cent

Source: Canada Post

What consumers want from online shopping experience:

69.8 per cent find home delivery extremely useful;

67.8 per cent like using “click and collect” in-store pickup;

39.3 per cent find secure delivery lockers a desirable alternative.

Average 2013 Canadian holiday spending:

Online shoppers — $746

Off-line shoppers — $382

Source: Deloitte 2014 Holiday Retail Outlook Survey
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Re: Brick and Mortar Retail Sales and Radio Ads Down

Postby Tom Jeffries » Mon Dec 15, 2014 7:06 pm

That is a terrific post = and answers a lot of questions.

I do a lot of shopping at Amazon.ca and it is great....price points and delivery is snappy.

Things are really getting interesting.
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Re: Brick and Mortar Retail Sales and Radio Ads Down

Postby PMC » Mon Dec 15, 2014 8:15 pm

Not all buy online...was in the main mall in Nanaimo yesterday (Sunday afternoon), and it was packed... the Chapters next to it, which includes a Starbucks, had line ups 10 deep for book sales and coffee.
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Re: Brick and Mortar Retail Sales and Radio Ads Down

Postby CWL » Tue Dec 16, 2014 7:15 am

We might be reading too much into the perceived smaller crowds. Less than 6% of shopping in Canada is online and forecast to be 8% by 2018. Thinking that the extended holiday hours including 24 hour openings of stores like Walmart might have more to do with it. I might suggest that any lack of retail on CKNW has more to do with ratings in key A25-54 and F25-54 demos. Have a listen to QM and Jack and I bet you get your fill of retail spots.
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Re: Brick and Mortar Retail Sales and Radio Ads Down

Postby Jack Bennest » Tue Dec 16, 2014 10:16 am

I am just buying less and less :lol:

despite the ads or the lack of ads :yahoo:

watch more videos to get away from TV ads

bah humbug - who said I was in the advertising game - lol
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