Canadian Tire, that venerable Canadian institution that sells a little bit of everything but has tires in its name, is going back to its core business and offering more tires. Online. Online tire sales? Yup. The idea is that once customers come to the store to have their cheap tires installed (cheap because they got a better price by buying the tires online), they’ll stay and buy other stuff. And Canadian Tire has A LOT of stuff.
Is this a good strategy for Canadian Tire? In lots of way, yes. The tire industry is huge – $2.5 – $3.5B, so it’s worthwhile for this retailing giant to return to its roots and try to nab some of the business as competitors like Costco rush in, online. It’s also a way to get customers who may not normally shop at Canadian Tire, those who are web savvy but not Canadian Tire savvy, into the stores.
Europeans buy tires online at a greater rate than Canadians, 10-15%. Its something that Canadians may well embrace as we see the efficiency in only having to go to the store once – for pickup/installation, not several times for purchase and then to return for installation.
