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Recorded live and in person at the third annual Loblaw Supplier Summit, where nearly 2,500 suppliers and Loblaw leaders filled the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Rohit Sriram, Senior Vice President, eCommerce and Loyalty at Loblaw Digital, joins Michael LeBlanc on The FEED powered by Loblaw for a wide-ranging conversation on the state of Canadian online shopping and where it goes next.
Rohit oversees online businesses across food, beauty and apparel — Loblaws, No Frills, Real Canadian Superstore, Shoppers Drug Mart and Joe Fresh — along with PC Optimum. He brings a practitioner's view to a subject Michael has been close to since selling the world's first pair of Levi's online in 1998.
The two open on the big picture: Canada's long-standing reputation as an e-commerce laggard. Rohit agrees the label was earned, though the gap with the United States has narrowed considerably, while Asian markets remain far ahead, particularly in the grocery category. COVID, he explains, didn't just spike demand, it reset the floor. Penetration settled at two to three times pre-pandemic levels and stayed there, with Canada now hovering around nine to nine and a half percent overall. Online grocery remains underpenetrated but is accelerating quickly, and in certain regions and banners, penetration is already north of ten percent.
Why does online grocery live or die on the produce pick, while apparel hinges on brand, fit and feel? Why did Canadians embrace click and collect first, and why is delivery now the fastest growing part of the business? Rohit walks through the "moments" framework his teams use to think about channel choice, a deliberate mindset shift away from treating e-commerce as a separate business and toward the reality that customers don't think in channels at all. They think about shopping, moving between store discovery and online convenience and expecting a seamless handoff.
They dig into value — not just price, but time savings, easy returns and the delivery fee that remains a sticking point for many shoppers. Rohit makes a pointed argument: online was once a premium service sold at a premium price, and retailers no longer have that excuse.
On speed, Michael revisits his own public bet that one hour delivery would stay niche. Rohit's read is that same-day has become table stakes, sub-thirty-minute rapid delivery isn't yet the Canadian norm, and the Asian race to ten-minute delivery ultimately landed on the insight that anything faster than thirty minutes wasn't really needed. Loblaw is still investing, with a DoorDash partnership serving dense urban, late night and over-the-counter demand.
The episode closes on technology and AI, and how Rohit's team separates signal from noise: start with the problem, demand differentiated value, design a test, and scale only when the customer benefit is real.
About Your Host, Michael LeBlanc
Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.
Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.
Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025 and 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.
Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.
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