Canadian Tire Doubles Online Sales, Expands Click-and-Collect Lockers

After seeing huge e-commerce growth, the retailer is expanding its network of self-service lockers to offer more convenience for online customers.

Need to Know

  • Canadian Tire announced plans to expand pick-up lockers for online order pickups at hundreds of locations in the coming year. 
  • Despite stiff competition, online business is booming for the Toronto-based retailer. Cyber Monday marked the biggest single day of online sales in its history. 
  • Candian Tire hopes in-store lockers reduce the costs associated with fulfilling and shipping online orders, as well as convince online shoppers to visit its stores. 
  • In Q4 2019, comparable sales at Canadian Tire stores open more than a year rose 4.8%.
  • Canadian Tire annual revenue for 2019 is up 3.4% to $14.5 billion, and online sales in Q4 2019 doubled YoY.

Analysis

In a bid to expand its e-commerce operations and compete with other leading home goods and hardware retailers such as Amazon and Walmart, Canadian Tire is rolling out lockers for online orders with in-store pickup across it hundreds of stores. Previously, the lockers were only available in a handful of locations.  

“We collectively believe … that in-store pick-up continues to be the best way for customers to have orders filled. It’s always the fastest and the cheapest option,” Greg Hicks, president of Canadian Tire Retail, said on an earnings call “We’re really working with the dealers now on rolling out more automated pickup solutions, to improve the customer experience and the dwell time for the customer.”

Canadian Tire tested out pickup points in 2019 to booming success, and they’re bolstered by the growing e-commerce numbers the retailer is seeing. Not only was 2019’s Cyber Monday Canadian Tire’s biggest single day of online sales in its history, but Q4 2019 saw double the online orders that they saw in only a year earlier. They were also the first retailer to introduce “Self-Serve Pickup Towers” to Canada in 2018.

“Our traffic was up substantially. Our sales from our high-value customers and our loyal customers are up substantially. Our web traffic is up substantially. All other things being equal, up against the competition, we had to steal market share,” CEO Stephen Wetmore said.

Canadian Tire executives welcome competition with open arms, as it has tasked them with the key goal of satisfying the evolving needs of customers, digitizing their brick-and-mortar business and expanding their e-commerce presence, as well as cost-cutting and increasing efficiency across the business. 

Executives state that they’re cutting $200 million in annual costs by 2022 through increased automation at call and distribution centers and consolidating transportation management, digital marketing, and website management platforms for each store.