With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/443582
bcbusiness.ca february 2015 BCBusiness 19 which started out selling eye- wear online under the name ClearlyContacts.ca, has two Van- couver storefronts and one in Toronto. Even e-commerce giant Amazon set up kiosks in certain malls during the Christmas shopping season, with rumours that it may soon open a New York storefront. For Coastal Contacts, the rea- son for taking things offline was simple: they needed a way to better understand their custom- ers. "One of the challenges for e-commerce companies is that there are no face-to-face interac- tions, and the stores gave us a chance to see, talk to and under- stand our customers to further develop and improve our online offering," says the company's chief marketing officer, Braden Hoeppner. The stores showcase a curated collection of eye- glasses and sunglasses but also have stations where customers can order from the website for shipping to their home or to the store for pick-up. According to a 2014 report from Deloitte and the Retail Council of Canada, "Retailers with a solely online business face hurdles in providing a strong product experience, as consumers are unable to person- ally interact with their products. Over the past few years, curated offerings at independently owned stores have provided a new shopping experience—that of a gathering space in a destina- tion neighbourhood." Still, not every online retailer will see the benefit of investing in a storefront. "It's an entirely different environment, so the successful online retailers that have invested in brick-and- mortar have done so realizing that it's a very special and very detail-oriented space," says Mark Startup, vice-president of the Retail Council. "In today's world, with all the competition that's out there, they need to do it well." ■ Start Me Up vocabulary check Showrooming checking out products in-store but purchasing online canadians who showroomed in 2013 63% N u m e r o l o g y T h e s h a r e o f pa r k i n g s Ta l l s that must be equipped with "level 2" charging conduits for eVs in all new multi-unit buildings, according to the new Vancouver building bylaws that came into effect last month. seven T h e n u m b e r o f s T r aTa s the couple applied to in their search for a new home before finding one that would let them plug in. $177– $326 1,381 By Melissa Edwards 20% { { T h e av e r a g e a n n u a l u T i l i T y b i l l for keeping an electric car charged. Last fall, a Port Moody couple chose to move after their strata council refused to let them plug their eV into an outlet near their spot in the garage, despite the couple's willingness to reimburse the added expense. Webrooming researching online but purchasing in-store canadians who webroomed in 2013 74% The total number of electric vehicles on the road in B.C., as of last fall. Despite a wealth of curiosity—thousands kick the tires in Tesla's new Robson Street show- room each week—it's still a far cry from the government's target of 10 per cent of total new vehicles by next year. According to Plug-In BC, most EV buyers in the province are owners of single-family homes —those, in other words, who have the ability to plug them in at night. { sOurce: accenture survey, september 2013