A few of the panelists and speakers: David Bensadoun of Aldo, Peter Simons of La Maison Simons, Chantal Levesque of Shan, PKP of Quebecor, Mahée Paiement, plus reps from companies like Lightspeed, Cossette and Ricardo Media.

But for a crash course in the future of retail, Charles Desjardins of Absolunet stood out. He offered 10 e-comm trends of 2018 in 45 jam-packed minutes. Here they are:

1. The renaissance of bricks and mortar. Frank + Oak and Structube were cited as examples of retailers using stores to support their online business. Interesting stat: 50 per cent of millennials prefer to shop in store at some point. And Kanuk, which has a cold room refrigerated to minus 25C in which to experience your potential new parka.
2. B2B is moving to B2C, with distributors bypassing the retailer and going directly to the consumer.
3. Virtual reality, from Ikea, Houzz and Amazon, which lets you place furniture in your living room virtually.
4. Retailers can now reliably measure the power of online research, and data can also tell them which ads worked. One stat cited by Desjardins: 82 per cent of consumers research a business; with 24 hours, 18 per cent of those make a purchase.
5. Mobile checkout is becoming less painful – and will reach 70 per cent of e-comm traffic by the end of this year.
6. Artificial intelligence can use a consumer’s data to personalize her online shopping experience. It’s like a familiar salesperson. Nextflix is a perfect example, catering movie picks to viewers based on past behaviour.
7. Amazon is more and more of a marketing force. Currently, 55 per cent of Americans start their buying research on Amazon, meaning if you’re not on Amazon, you’re missing out. Wayfair is also becoming a major marketplace.
8. Voice command technology is changing e-comm so that product info will have to be compatible with voice searching. Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa are already shaking it up.
9. Photo shopping is here. You upload an image of something you like – say, Kim Kardashian’s outfit – and your search engine or app will find you the look.
10. On that note, your web browser’s dominance is waning. The browser will be one channel among many – apps, voice interaction, for example – as a way to purchase stuff.

For the full trend report from Absolunet, click here. 

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Peter Simons, CEO of La Maison Simons, spoke passionately Tuesday about the tsunami of change we are experiencing and the challenges of government to face up to the internet revolution and social equity issues.

Simons spoke at a panel discussion at HOP, the annual summit of Quebec retailers organized by the Conseil québécois du commerce de détail and expanded at length on his concerns to journalists after the talk.

We are in the third industrial revolution, Simons said, but we don’t have 50 years to figure it out.

Peter Simons post panel discussion at the annual summit of Quebec retailers, held at the Palais des congrès in Montreal.

The technology revolution is just starting, and governments are not dealing with the changes to come, he charged. Just look at Uber, he said, pointing out that even that small issue is confounding policy makers.

“With the changes we’re seeing, we’ll need thousands of commissions.

“Prepare yourselves for stores to close.

“Imagine a world without offices.

“It’s coming,” he said. “The internet of things is changing everything.”

Those are some of the issues at the two-day conference, with panel discussions on subjects from parallel economies (at which Simons spoke, along with Martin Boucher of Boucher Sports and Brigitte Coutu of Ricardo Media) as well as conferences on millennials, the future of shopping centres and social media strategies.

Simons himself said, “I am not a politician,” but asked if he would become one, he said he would not.

“I just love retail too much. I don’t think I’d be a good politician,” he said.

“Government is like philanthropy – it’s easy to just give money away.

“But the market pressure brings rigour. Governing smart and giving smart are difficult things to do without the market pressure.”

Simons said it’s time to have a dialogue about what’s really going on.

“Right now, we’re in a critical moment for our government. We see it in our society.

“There’s a disequilibrium. Right now, there is a new economy and an old economy. And I’m very pro-technology. I’m a technophile.

“That’s not the question.”

He pointed to the paltry taxes paid by companies like Facebook and eBay.

“You can’t be eBay, worth $55 billion and pay 2 per cent corporate taxes, and then brag about it in the Wall Street Journal.

“It’s the challenge of our era,” he said, comparing it to slavery and women’s voting rights in their times.

Meanwhile, Simons has been making headlines across the country with his family’s bold $200 million expansion from Quebec into the rest of Canada.

Now, there are 12 stores across Canada, with a first Ontario location opened last week, and more locations this year and next. We asked if there are plans for the Montreal downtown store, which is starting to look  the worse for wear.

“We haven’t announced anything, but we are in the early stages of planning an important renovation,” Simons said.

Simons maintained that he is an optimist. “I believe in creativity, in Quebec, in the talent of people.”

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