-- Leon's expects continued growth of its
e-commerce business; The company plans future enhancements to
customers' online shopping experience with a suite of dedicated
apps --
TORONTO, Oct. 25, 2018 /CNW/ - Canada's largest furniture and appliances
retailer, Leon's Furniture Limited ("LFL" or the "Company")
(TSX:LNF), is embarking on a major undertaking to elevate its
e-commerce business and enhance the customer online shopping
experience. The Company announced today it has selected Shopify, a
global leading e-commerce company, to power all of LFL's portfolio
of online stores, including leons.ca, thebrick.com and furniture.ca
on the Shopify Plus platform, which powers large and growing online
stores and brands.
In addition to hosting and operating its online stores on the
new Shopify platform, LFL is also working on the development of
dedicated apps that will significantly improve customers' online
shopping experience. Some of these enhancements include intelligent
room planners, virtual decorating, and augmented reality
capabilities where shoppers can place items from the online store
against a backdrop of their own rooms. Additional features that
will be offered to customers on LFL's online stores include instant
deferred payment options, and enhanced delivery features, among
others.
"Leon's Furniture Limited has been an e-commerce player for
nearly two decades. Working with a leading provider like Shopify
puts us on the right track for continued success," said
Edward Leon, President and CEO of
Leon's Furniture Limited. "Emerging technologies and changing
shopping behaviour forces retailers to re-think how they operate
and transform their business to create a truly seamless shopping
experience between the online website and traditional brick and
mortar store. To win in the retail space, and specifically in the
industry segment in which LFL operates, requires mastering both our
chain-wide in-store customer experience and our e-commerce
offerings across all of our online properties."
LFL selected Shopify thanks to its ability to demonstrate the
platform's dependability, adaptability and value. Additionally,
both companies share a strong willingness and commitment to work
toward the customer having the best shopping experience.
"As a fiercely Canadian company, Shopify is proud to have been
chosen by the iconic Canadian entity, Leon's Furniture. This is a
great example of how a large, brick and mortar retailer is working
with Shopify to innovate its online shopping experience," said
Loren Padelford, VP and GM with
Shopify.
While often associated with the traditional retail store model,
LFL has been active in the online space and has seen tremendous
growth and potential in e-commerce.
"If we compare our online operations during the past decade to
those of other pure-play e-commerce retailers, our e-commerce
division shows outstanding performance with a CAGR of 45 percent
topline growth coupled with EBITDA margins of 18 per
cent1," said Constantine
Pefanis, CFO with Leon's Furniture Limited.
LFL sees additional business upside and revenue growth potential
from the arrangement with Shopify on the e-commerce front that is
coupled with its own national on-the-ground footprint of
warehouses. LFL has been approached by other e-commerce players
recently, looking to flow goods through its warehouse and logistics
system.
About Leon's Furniture Limited
Leon's Furniture Limited is the largest retailer of furniture,
mattresses, appliances and electronics in Canada. Our retail banners include: Leon's;
The Brick; The Brick Mattress Store; and The Brick Outlet. Finally,
with the Midnorthern Appliance banner alongside the Appliance
Canada banner, we are also the country's largest commercial
retailer of appliances to builders, developers, hotels and property
management companies. LFL has 304 retail stores from coast-to-coast
in Canada under various banners.
As well, the Company operates three e-commerce sites: leons.ca,
thebrick.com and its newest site, furniture.ca.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release includes certain statements that may be deemed
"forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other
than statements of historical facts, that address events or
developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not
historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by
the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends",
"estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or
that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or
"should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations
expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on
reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of
future performance, and actual results may differ materially from
those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause
the actual results to differ materially from those in
forward-looking statements include regulatory actions, market
prices, and continued availability of capital and financing, and
general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are
cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future
performance and actual results or developments may differ
materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates, and
opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are
made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company
undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements
in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or
other factors, should change.
1 For
period ended December 31, 2017
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SOURCE Leon's Furniture Limited