This past Tuesday, May 17th, CHPTA members had the opportunity to hear from Mr. Hemant Sangwan as he discussed the latest trends in online shopping as well as changing consumer behaviour and the challenges and opportunities these present for Canadian businesses during our latest educational webinar for members.
Hemant is a full-time professor of Marketing at Seneca College in addition to a lecturer at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto and in the Master of Business Analytics and Master of Management in Artificial Intelligence at the Schulich School of Business at York University. He has served clients across industries for 12+ years – CPG, retail, financial services, and telecom, both in Canada and international markets.
During the interactive session, Hemant first reviewed current stats from Statistics Canada on the growth of online shopping in Canada. He then talked about the importance of focusing on the customer experience and ensuring that expectations are being met as well as identifying areas which can be improved upon. This was followed by discussion on the global rise of Social E-commerce and how Mobile Commerce (M-commerce), the fastest growing form of E-commerce, will dominate in the near future. New technologies and use of M-commerce Apps are being used by virtually all online retailers and traditional large retailers but many medium to small sized retailers are not taking advantage of these new tools which are not that expensive to implement.
The webinar then focused on the evolution in consumer behaviour particularly in regards to multicultural and economic challenges that it presents for product sellers. In addition, Hemant touched upon short-term and medium-to long-term steps businesses need to take to be successful in selling online – embracing the ‘digital’ mindset and understanding the customer journey are key factors.
Once again, we would like to thank Mr. Sangwan for his informative presentation as well as the Schulich School of Business at York University for sponsoring this presentation. Hemant can be reached at hsangwan@schulich.yorku.ca.
