Panier Bleu to expand into online marketplace
Government, businesses back online marketplace set to roll out this fall
Quebec is creating an online marketplace for homegrown retailers that will offer an alternative to Amazon.com and other foreign e-commerce giants, starting this fall.
The transactional website will build on the foundations of the Panier Bleu, a retailer directory that the provincial government set up in April. Mouvement Desjardins, National Bank of Canada and the Panier Bleu itself are investing $300,000 apiece in the project, Panier Bleu chief executive Alain Dumas told reporters Monday.
“This is not really about creating an Amazon. What we are proposing is an alternative for people who want to encourage Quebec merchants,” Dumas said. “We want to pool the strengths of our retailers. I don't want to use the term `virtual mall,' but it would be a way to create a destination, a unique multi-merchant basket.”
Quebec established the Panier Bleu — French for “blue basket” — in April as a means of showcasing provincially owned merchants and bolstering retail sales during the first COVID-19 lockdown. A new product catalogue — essentially a search engine that allows consumers to browse through more than 2,500 retailer databases — was added in October.
Building a Quebec-centric website that allows e-commerce transactions is one of 49 recommendations included in a 237-page “roadmap” on the future of retail in the province. The report, which follows consultations with about 80 industry experts and a host of retailers, was made public by Panier Bleu officials Monday.
Retail sales in Quebec last year amounted to more than $131 billion, split among about 55,000 merchants, Economy and Innovation Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon said Monday. Some 450,000 people work in the industry.
Online sales have been booming since the start of the pandemic. Retail e-commerce sales more than doubled from February to May, reaching a record $3.9 billion, Statistics Canada reported last July.
COVID -19 has also highlighted a growing consumer appetite for locally made goods. Quebec wants to tap into this sentiment by enabling transactions to take place on the Panier Bleu, Fitzgibbon said.
“We want to help Quebecers pick local merchants and buy Quebec-made products,” he told reporters. While Quebec retailers can sell goods that come from anywhere in the world, “it's obvious that in a `buy local' perspective, it's preferable to purchase a foreign-made product at a Quebec retailer than to go through other platforms,” Fitzgibbon said. “This is one of the aspects that we will actively work on over the next few months.”
All retailers with Quebec ownership or a physical address in the province can be listed on the new transactional site, Dumas said.
Priorities for Panier Bleu officials include the creation of a distinctive label for Quebec-owned businesses and Quebec-made products, Dumas said. Officials will also aim to develop robust data protection standards, common delivery solutions and a unique user profile for shoppers, he said.
Amazon.com and other foreign e-commerce behemoths have been winning market share in Quebec because of their integrated “onestop shop” approach that's at once fast, simple to use and stress-free, Dumas said.
Creating a transactional marketplace for Quebec retailers is “a great project that will fundamentally boost our economy,” Dumas said. “If nothing is done, our local retailers will continue to lose market share to the global giants.
“Our retailers cannot compete if they work in silos, and it's our economic base and our public finances that will suffer as a result.”
Quebec set aside $4.4 million to put together the Panier Bleu and fund it through the end of 2021. About half of that amount has been spent, Fitzgibbon said Monday.
“We have to stop talking about the digital transformation of Quebec retailers and take action,” Dumas said. “We need to move now.”