Retail Industry of Canada and International Expansion of Loblaws in Japan

The retail industry of Canada is mainly engaged in the sales of consumer products and services through various stores that are in the country. The large retail organizations in the country also operate the warehouse facilities and they also have manufacturing facilities for the production of private label products. The sales of retail industry of Canada amount to around 606 billion Canadian Dollars in the year 2020 which was lower that its sales in 2019 due to global pandemic. The decrease in sales by organizations in the industry was around 1.5 percent and it was mainly due to issues being faced by the firms during global pandemic (Dolnicar, Grün & Leisch, 2018).

The retail industry of Canada had however depicted massive levels of growth between the years 2012 and 2019. After an initial decline in sales in the first few months of 2020, the revenues gained by retail sector started increasing as it provided essential goods to the customers. The future potential of retail industry is considered to be quite high, and this will affect the organizations that are a part of the industry. The Canadian retail industry has been quite progressive since 2010 and its value crossed 500 billion CAD in the year 2014 (Retailcouncil.org. 2021). Retail and supermarket industry of Canada is thereby considered to be one of highest growing sectors in Canada and it has a major positive impact on the economic condition of the country. The customers in Canada are also interested in the high-quality products that can fulfil their needs and have a positive influence on the overall operations of the industry. The major players in the Canadian retail industry include Weston Group, Walmart stores Inc., Costco Canada Inc., Metro Inc. and Canadian Tire Corp Ltd. (Retailcouncil.org. 2021).  

Loblaws Inc. is a chain of supermarkets of Canadian origin with its stores located in provinces of Manitoba, British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec and Ontario and it’s headquartered in Brampton, Ontario. Loblaws is mainly a subsidiary organization of Loblaw Companies Limited which is the biggest food distributor in Canada. Loblaws was established in the year 1919 by Theodore Loblaw and it operated the stores in various parts Canada with the aim of offering the best quality products to customers (Loblaws.ca. 2021).

The stores of Loblaws located in Western Canada were further rebranded under the name of SuperValu and the company had aimed at bringing major changes to the outlook of its stores in order to target large customer segments. Women belonging to the age groups between 20 years to 50 years who have medium to high levels of income are mainly targeted by Loblaws in order to offer its products. The young male customers who are also a major part of the customer segments that are targeted by Loblaws. The products offered by Loblaws are based on high quality and are priced moderately with the aim of attracting larger number of customers towards the organization (Keiningham et al., 2020).

The international expansion of Loblaws can be done in Japan for the purpose of increasing its presence in the retail sector and enhancing the overall revenues that are gained by the organization. Retail industry of Japan had recorded sales of around 146 trillion Japanese yen and it is considered to be the highest in a decade. The non-food-based products have gained a major share of the sales gained by Japanese retail sector. On the other hand, the food products represent the biggest segment in domestic retail sales (Statista.com. 2021). The growth prospects of Japanese retail sector are quite high and although the e-commerce sector is showing immense levels of growth, the physical stores in the country also have a strong presence. The physical stores that operate in Japan include the small retailers and the large departmental stores as well. The health and beauty-based segment of Loblaws will be expanded to Japan in order to serve the Japanese customers and enhance the position that has been gained by the organization (Liu et al., 2019).

Moreover, the growth of non-food sector in Japan will also play a major role in ensuring that the sales of Loblaws can increase and the organization can also develop its presence in the Asian market. The Asian region will be able to provide a large base of customers to Loblaws and this will influence the future growth-related plans of the organization. On the other hand, the high-quality products of Loblaws will also be able to support the organization to gain a larger group of customers in the other countries of world along with its home country, Canada. The international growth of Loblaws in the future will be mainly supported by the steps that will be taken by the organization and strategies that it will implement in Japanese retail market (Boisen et al., 2018).