The pandemic hit many businesses hard, and the artisanal bakery and café Mamie Clafoutis was one of them. Their seven locations in Montreal and Ottawa were forced to reduce their hours to one shift per day. As they’ve emerged from the storm, they have sought ways to keep their costs low, and one of them is by automating checkout. Working with the Bensadoun School of Retail Management (BSRM), Mamie Clafoutis is sensitizing its clientele to the idea of self-checkout by stationing a single employee to oversee the process. But they have ambitions to become even more automated.
This year, Canada’s large grocery chains are freezing the price for a greater variety of items than usual before the holidays. While 10-15% more products are included in the freeze this year, the true test of affordability will come later. “How high will grocery prices be when the price freeze ends?” asks Professor Saibal Ray in an interview with CBC Radio’s As It Happens.
Among the low-rise industrial buildings that line the northern end of Décarie Boulevard, a major new shopping centre is taking shape. The $7-billion Royalmount luxury retail and lifestyle centre is slated to open in summer 2024, after numerous construction delays.
This Fall, 鶹AV awarded new Sustainable Workplace Certifications to nine units. Among them, two 鶹AV Desautels units earned the silver-level distinction: The Bensadoun School of Retail Management (BSRM) and IT Customer Services Team.
Food prices rose by 5.8 per cent in September, prompting the federal government to ask Canada’s five largest grocery chains to provide a plan for how they will stabilize prices, with staple products a likely focus. “High transportation costs, inventory issues and other pressures driving up costs are subsiding,” says Professor Saibal Ray, who specializes in Operations Management. Ray, commenting to Financial Post and Toronto Star, suspects the grocers’ promises to Ottawa will involve price cuts.
Amazon Go, convenience stores that eliminate the check-out process, are coming to Canada. Customers can use a debit card, credit card or payment-enabled phone to enter, select and buy items, and simply walk out of the store. Amazon introduced the cashierless stores in the U.S. in 2018 and is now opening locations in Calgary and Toronto. "The growth in this sector is remarkable, with a significant amount of investment pouring in," says Professor Maxime Cohen in interview with CBC.
The way that we shop is changing, and for small- and medium-sized enterprises, it can be challenging to keep up with the pace of innovation. But the Bensadoun School of Retail Management (BSRM) is helping them do it. Since spring 2023, it has been hosting regional networking events that meet Quebec businesspeople where they live and work. Regional roadshows aim to help SMEs become omni-channel retailers, and consist of workshops that showcase the innovative research happening at BSRM.
Artificial intelligence (AI) will give productivity a major boost in the retail sector, according Maxime Cohen, Professor of Retail and Operations Management at 鶹AV Desautels, home to the Bensadoun School of Retail Management (BSRM)’s retail innovation lab.
The Bensadoun School of Retail Management, in collaboration with the Master of Management in Analytics (MMA) at 鶹AV Desautels Faculty of Management, is pleased to announce the launch of the Data Sphere Lab.
Technologies like artificial intelligence are changing the way we shop. But change can be intimidating, and people can be reluctant to adopt it. The Bensadoun School of Retail Management’s Retail Innovation Lab provides such an example. At the highly automated Couche-Tard location on 鶹AV campus, cameras in the store allow customers to make frictionless purchases that don’t require bar codes to be scanned. Still, many people don’t want to use them.
October 5-13, 2023
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This first edition of the Retail Gen AI Hackathon, powered by ALDO Group, is a unique opportunity to work on a real-life problem, develop a solution in a fast-paced environment, and learn how AI and data analytics can help retailers make better data-driven decisions within their operations.
AI's impact on retail is set to revolutionize the industry, from crowd measurement to price management, changing the in-store experience significantly. Certified analytics and marketing intelligence professional Christian Bourque explains how infrared technology is currently used to analyze foot traffic levels and reveal the upcoming technological frontier in retail, stating that 鶹AV’s Retail Innovation Lab in the Bronfman pavilion exemplifies the store of the future.
About sixty entrepreneurs from Vaudreuil-Soulanges region joined Desautels faculty and staff for a conference on best practices in retail.
E-commerce has made it possible to order almost anything online, but that has made it more challenging for brick-and-mortar retailers to attract shoppers and with more stores sitting vacant, some shopping malls have gotten creative, and added temporary pop-up activities like roller skating and haunted houses. Before the pandemic, commercial landlords demanded multi-year leases, said Charles de Brabant, executive director at 鶹AV’s Bensadoun School of Retail Management.
Two faculty members of the Bensadoun School of Retail Management were named to Rethink Retail’s Top Retail Influencers list for 2023. Professors Maxime Cohen and Saibal Ray were both recognized with this distinction, alongside some of the world’s top retail experts, consultants, analysts, academics, journalists, and thought leaders who are making an impact in the online retail community.