SALES

The surge in online sales over the past two years has represented a huge shift in consumer habits—and a huge concern for dealers and managers. Through the pandemic, the shift to online sales has grown exponentially.

Retailers with established platforms, such as Canadian Tire, Lowe’s Canada, and Home Depot Canada, fared well as their online sales soared. But the move was often a difficult one for independents, especially as this trend continues even after the worst of the pandemic is behind us.

However, the big groups are wellpositioned to ramp up their online sales game.

According to ITBusiness.ca, Rajat Khanna, vice-president of information technology at Lowe’s Canada, saw the retailer’s website traffic increase by 200 percent and digital volume was up 400 percent. Initially, one of the big sellers was paint. In response, Lowe’s Canada introduced an online paint selector, which lets customers transform the room they want to paint virtually.

At Home Hardware Stores Ltd., Chris Parsons, director of e-commerce, was quoted as saying the banner’s website traffic more than doubled during the past year under COVID. Parsons noted that his company rolled out a platform to help its dealers track and process online orders.

Even as more customers moved online, the company’s call centre experienced a huge surge in use as well, rising by 350 percent. At Lowe’s Canada, that number went up by 800 percent, said Khanna.

For both companies, as well as companies like Canadian Tire, the focus has been on hiring more IT staff and beefing up the tech sides of their businesses.