Black Friday and Cyber Monday kick off the biggest shopping season of the year. Thanks to online retail and mobile apps, online spending will only increase.
Psychological ownership is that feeling that someone stole ‘your’ parking spot or nabbed the last sweater you had your eye on. We have a tendency to get territorial when we feel it’s been violated.
Artificial intelligence can detect patterns in your shopping behaviour that can help retailers deliver better deals to you, and then suggest things you never even knew you wanted.
As Canada moves to legalize marijuana and online sales become commonplace, privacy concerns can’t be an afterthought; they must be built into the system from the outset. That’s not happening.
As Canada’s federal government sends mixed signals on digital taxation, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a historic precedent and paves the way for other countries to tackle the digital economy.
The complexity of the reforms might jeopardise the necessary cooperation of overseas businesses, and place consumers at risk of paying wrongly charged GST.
Amazon has barred Australian shoppers from its US site, rather than contend with new GST rules on overseas purchases. But don’t expect a stampede at your local branch of Harvey Norman as a result.
Loblaw is playing defence against Amazon, the boogeyman of retailing. But if Canadian grocers went on the offensive, they’d be able to deliver much more than food to Canadian homes.
Online grocery shopping is a potential growth area for Canadian grocery chains. Yet Canadians are proving to be lukewarm about buying groceries online, preferring to shop in stores.
Holiday retail sales may boom this year – and the lion’s share will not be online purchases. Yet brick-and-mortar retail stores are facing heavy internet competition.