With the increasing development of e-commerce market, more and more companies use a new tool called “online store” to attract and facilitate customers. Canadian tire now entered the new e-market with a new online tire store which includes more than 4000 tires.

“It’s more challenging to manage assortments in store and corporately, and making sure that we have tires available for our customers,” said Deacon who is associate vice-president of automotive for Canadian Tire in Toronto. “Having the ability for customers to reserve their inventory online and make sure it’s in-store is a great way of solving that need while providing a better customer experience.”

In the website, visitors can choose tires based on their needs and wants. The online store provides many brands and types of tires and customers can pick up packages according to their vehicle type, tire size and model year. This new online service gives customers a big convenience that they can shop anytime and at anywhere. Once buyers have made the purchase, they can find their products in the nearest Canadian Tire store when the products are ready.

As a customer, this new technology saves my time by shopping on the internet instead of visiting a lot of local stores to find tires and also creates value and satisfaction to me. Canadian Tire not only makes a closed profitable relationship with exist customers in the long run, but also attracts new customers by entering the new e-market.

According to Deacon, online sales of tire just account for less than 5% in the whole tire market in Canada with an estimated $2.5 billion a year. However, “It’s a small but growing part of the business” said Deacon. I also believe online store is a huge market in the future!

Here is the Canadian Tire online shop website: http://tires.canadiantire.ca/view/content/ctHomePage

Reference: http://www.marketingmag.ca/news/marketer-news/canadian-tire-rolls-out-online-tire-store-36449

Hi, everyone. My name is Yue Wang and I am an international student from China. This is my third year in UBC and my option is Transportation and Logistics.I take marketing because it is my required course.

Before taking this course, I thought marketing was just a strategy which was come up with by for-profit companies to increase their benefits, that is, gain more money! Because in the past as a customer, I had a lot experience with sales persons. I always felt that they tried to push me to buy their products or to be involved in their services and did not even think what I really need. I even received calls(which were annoyed) or emails everyday for sale promotion and I often ignored them because of bad impression.

However, I changed my mind when I had this course! Marketing is an important part in business and is more than just selling and advertising It really creates values for customers and not just captures values from customers. Its primary goal is to satisfy customers’ needs and wants. Marketing is also a media for customers to know more new products and services and to find what is really suitable for them. For now, as a customer, I will pay more attention to “what I received” and get value from them! Also, as a business student, I need to learn how to benefit both of buyers and sellers. Therefore, studying marketing is a good tool to achieve this goal and also it is very interesting!