The very first all-Canadian online department store is here, and it’s the perfect way for shoppers to keep their hard-earned dollars within Canada especially during the holiday season.
Buy Canadian consolidates and curates a wide variety of Canadian brands in a one-stop-shop for all things Canadian. With a list of over 20,000 products and growing, this all-Canadian online department store allows shoppers to fill their carts with products from multiple brands and check out in one seamless process.
The ‘Buy Canadian’ movement has been growing since the trade relationship between Canada and the U.S. was put to the test by the Trump administration’s tariffs. The threats to Canada’s economy and its sovereignty in the past year have pushed the country to rally behind patriotism for the Great White North.
The Government of Canada’s Buy Canadian Policy prioritizes Canadian suppliers in federal projects; provinces and territories have terminated contracts with U.S. suppliers, pulled American-made liquor from shelves and pledged to strengthen interprovincial trade. To be discovered, Canadian retailers are labelling Canadian-made goods with small but mighty symbols of red maple leaves.
Buying Canadian
In theory, buying Canadian products is meant to demonstrate national pride and unity. In reality, it is easier said than done. A recent survey by Nanos Research and CTV News found that the top three concerns from Canadian consumers were cost, availability, and transparency – all things the new online department store addresses.
While the prices on items are set by individual brands, shoppers can easily discover deals to get the best value through the Buy Canadian department store, Vice President of Marketing Al Scornaienchi tells Now Toronto.
“To help consumers concerned with cost, we automatically gather a collection of every product that’s on sale in the department store,” Scornaienchi says.
In addition to bargain hunting, shoppers on Buy Canadian can easily discover and purchase goods from various Canadian brands in a single checkout experience.
“Our legacy department stores were slow to adapt to the online model, and certainly weren’t featuring a lot of Canadian brands,” Buy Canadian Group’s VP Marketing Al Scornaienchi tells Now Toronto.
“There was [previously] no easy way for Canadians to shop for Canadian brands in a single shopping experience.”
In a saturated retail sphere, it can be particularly daunting for shoppers to discern what is Canadian and what is not. Amidst the growing demand for Canadian-made products, there have also been cases of ‘maple washing’, where businesses make false or misleading claims about the Canadian origin of their products.
This is why all products on Buy Canadian are labelled with ‘Made in Canada,’ ‘Homegrown Brand,’ ‘Canadian Business,’ or all of the above.
‘Made in Canada’ refers to products that are Canadian-made. ‘Homegrown Brand’ includes Canadian businesses that have made their own product lines, and ‘Canadian Business’ refers to retailers who sell products from various brands.
“The intent is to allow Canadian shoppers to make informed decisions, based on their own sensitivity to the ‘Canadian-ness’ of a product,” Scornaienchi says.
“It allows the individual consumer to discern, and support Canadian brands in a destination where it’s fully transparent how Canadian a given product is”.
With over 130,000 Canadian brands actively selling through Shopify alone, Buy Canadian Group is continuing to onboard those who are aligned with their philosophy.
“We want to offer a curation of the best of Canadian brands so it’s easy for anyone to confidently shop Canadian,” Scornaienchi says.
Head over to Buy Canadian today to shop Canadian products with confidence.
