Some stores suggest going to their website

HALIFAX — When Mark Butler needed a new gasket for his coffee maker, he hopped on his bike and rode to the Mountain Equipment Co-op store in Halifax.

“The guy just said: ‘We don’t carry them,’” Butler said. “I told him I had bought them there before, and he just told me to look online.”

Amid the economic wreckage of the COVID-19 pandemic, a trend is emerging in which some shoppers at large chains and big box stores are being quietly advised to shop online.

As supply-chain issues impact inventory and a second wave threatens more lockdowns, many retailers are upgrading online services to rival the in-store experience.

However, as Butler’s experience shows, the results can be hit and miss.

“Some retailers are actually innovating in the online space and trying to connect with their customers in ways that are not just utilitarian but actually create that shopping experience you’d have in store,” said Jenna Jacobson, assistant professor at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Retail Management.

For example, shoppers can schedule virtual meetings with salespeople for personalized help ranging from wardrobe tips to home design.

Online chat boxes connect shoppers to real salespeople rather than “chat bots” programmed with a preset list of questions and answers.

And some grocery stores are connecting customers to personal shoppers to allow for real time grocery list edits.

“The personal shopper who is picking out fruits and veggies can actually correspond with the customers to say: ‘We’re out of strawberries, would you like blueberries,” Jacobson said.

The aim isn’t to eclipse the physical store, but to complement it.

Experts say it’s all about what’s known in the business as omnichannel retail, which involves the seamless integration of the physical and digital shopping worlds.

When it works, it improves customer service, brand engagement and ultimately sales. But when it fails, customers can feel confused and discouraged.

In Butler’s case, the salesperson could have checked the outof-stock inventory on a computer and had his gasket shipped to the store or delivered to his home.

“It wasn’t particularly encouraging about using the store,” Butler said. “It pretty explicitly sends the message that I should just go online.”

Markus Giesler, associate professor of marketing at York University’s Schulich School of Business, said shoppers being told to “just go online” points to a problem with the retail strategy for how online and brick-andmortar stores will co-exist.

“Omni-channel retail requires tremendous co-ordination between different actors and elements,” he said. “Salespeople on the ground need to be trained and fully on board with the mission or the result is often frustrated consumers.”

Part of the challenge facing retailers is the meteoric growth in online shopping in recent months.

Statistics Canada reported that e-commerce sales soared to an all-time high of $3.9 billion in May, an increase of 110 per cent compared with May 2019.

Retailers and salespeople are scrambling to keep up.

But Karl Littler with the Retail Council of Canada said it would be the “rare retailer” that would discourage people from shopping in their physical store.

Besides the substantial costs that go into keeping the doors open, he said shoppers tend to buy more in-store.