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In the beginning of the October, Canadian Tire announced that it is going to invest in a digital strategy to bring products to its customers in a more efficient manner. Namely, Canadian Tire is aiming to “alert customers to deals on winter boots and shovels” via digital messages. While it doesn’t sound like a novel idea as all of us has received promotional emails from various retailers or stores with regards to discounts and promotions in the past, what makes Canadian Tire’s approach stand out is that it is alerting the customers about the deals on winter boots and shovels, as it snows.
I believe that Canadian Tire’s strategic thinking may very well provide them with a competitive edge over its competitors, as very few large retail stores provides such service. Also, by digitalizing and alerting through messages, Canadian Tire can better target the younger population, which are relying on and using more technology on a day to day basis to satisfy their needs (shopping online, looking at eflyers, etc.). Canadian Tire is taking advantage of today’s technology by providing customers easier access to its products; such ease may potentially lead to more profit. Canadian Tire’s strategy may even pave way to a growth in loyal customers due to its novel service (if they execute it well, that is).
Nonetheless, while this is an advantage and may attract potential customers due to its convenience, such digital strategy is not sustainable. Like McGrath mentioned, strategies these days needs to be transient — they need to be constantly revised, as such “advantage often evaporates in less than a year.” Especially in this day and age when technology develops rapidly, it would not be difficult for other firms to implement a similar or a more sophisticated system that would make Canadian Tire’s strategy seem outdated. As a result, Canadian Tire should continually look at what other firms are doing in response to its digital strategy and assess the opportunity cost of spending resources on developing the strategy if other firms are going to implement the same system.
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