Join RCC’s new President and CEO, Kim Furlong, and Santo Ligotti, Vice President of Marketing and Member Services, as they kick off Retail West 2025. Prepare for a dynamic day filled with insights, networking, and fresh ideas to drive retail forward in Western Canada.

In a rapidly shifting retail landscape, forward-thinking and adaptability is everything. Join Mat Povse, President of Best Buy Canada, for an inside look at how the company is investing and evolving to meet consumers’ needs and be the best place to go for tech and wireless. From strategic partnerships to high-performing ecommerce, to innovative store formats, to supply chain transformation, Best Buy Canada is rewriting the playbook. Mat will share candid insights into the challenges facing retailers today, the opportunities to grow amid disruption, and his vision for what’s next. 

Sponsor Spotlight

As retail continues its rapid digital transformation, consumers demand payment experiences that are secure, seamless, and available anytime, anywhere. Join Interac’s Shenela Tavarayan for a look at how payment innovation is evolving—from pilots to scalable products—and how centralized, bank-backed infrastructure can help retailers build trust and meet rising customer expectations.

In this keynote, Steve Mossop, Executive Vice President at Leger, shares cutting-edge insights from hundreds of polls released over the past year—including Leger’s tracking on economic confidence, inflation sentiment, and consumer trust—this session explores how attitudes are shifting across the country, with British Columbia standing out in bold relief. Steve unpacks what these shifts mean for retailers: from rising price sensitivity and eroding brand loyalty to increasing demand for ethical and transparent business practices. Expect a data-driven roadmap to help future-proof your customer strategy in a province that often leads the national curve.

Sponsor Spotlight

In the 2025 Worldpay Global Payments Report, it is estimated that Canada’s E-Commerce business will increase by 9% CAGR by 2030 (from $116B in 2024 to $190B in 2030). As these transactions continue to grow in the retail sector, so does the prevalence of bad actors fostering fraudulent activities. This necessitates the enhancement of fraud management techniques in the retail industry. Phil will explore the latest fraud challenges that plague the industry while highlighting advancements in fraud detection and management to reduce retail sector fraud.

While supply chain challenges seem to change day to day, customer demands continue to evolve in tandem. While retailers grapple with tariffs, trade concerns and an increasingly complex supply chain, customers want lower delivery costs, improved visibility and reduced delivery times. In this session, attendees will learn how retailers and supply chain solutions providers can work together to meet the changing needs of both the store and the end consumer.

Additional panelists to be announced

Retailers now more than ever are being asked to do more with less – with consumer tastes changing faster than ever. That’s why smarter data collaboration is no longer optional.

In this session Environics Analytics X Caddle reveal how integrating Caddle’s verified receipt data and rapid-response consumer insights with Environics’ segmentation and modeling tools creates a complete 360° view of consumer behavior—who they are, what they buy, and why it matters.

Lunch & Learn

​With raddar now fully deployed in British Columbia, this session will showcase how Transcontinental is helping small- and mid-sized regional retailers explore how the combination of print & digital continues to be an effective tactic in today’s marketing media mix. raddar is a cost-efficient solution offering mass brand awareness and geotargeted around your locations.

Discover how London Drugs is cultivating meaningful retail careers by fostering a strong culture of internal growth and advancement. This session will showcase the real-life journeys of team members who began in-store and successfully transitioned into impactful roles at head office. Learn about the company’s robust programs designed to help frontline employees explore and access corporate career pathways. By valuing a career built on experience and transferable skills, London Drugs is changing the game by taking traditional stepping-stone jobs and transitioning staff into dynamic, long-term careers. 

The future of retail will be shaped by hyper-personalization, ethical consumption, and immersive digital experiences. But with great innovation comes great responsibility. This session explores how retailers can prepare for tomorrow’s consumer by engaging with future personas powered by GenAI, navigating plausible consumer scenarios, and embedding responsible AI practices into their strategy. We’ll introduce neuro-symbolic AI as a new frontier in explainable personalization and explore how governance frameworks can help mitigate bias, protect privacy, and foster trust.

Canadian shoppers are increasingly “choiceful,” undecided, and navigating economic headwinds, making them harder to reach. So, how can marketers respond effectively? In this keynote, Google’s Aria Patel will cut through the noise and introduce a powerful framework of Flexibility, Knowledge, and Trust. Discover how to harness Google’s AI Marketing Engine to turn uncertainty into your biggest opportunity. Learn tangible strategies to activate your data, empower your stores, and experiment with confidence. This session is for retailers ready to accelerate business growth and build a resilient marketing strategy for the year ahead.

Sponsor Spotlight

Return-It is transforming beverage container recycling in B.C.—with over 25 billion containers collected and counting. Discover how your business can partner to reduce return-related workload, increase store visits, and tap into AI-driven innovations that are shaping the future of recycling. 

What happens when elevated merchandising meets innovation in consumer engagement? In this conversation, Shannon Stewart, Chief Merchandising Officer at Harry Rosen, and Cameron Conn, CEO of Champlain, come together to explore how brands can thrive in a time of rapid retail evolution. 

Together, they’ll discuss how customer expectations are shifting, the role of data and storytelling in creating meaningful experiences, and how premium retail can continue to lead through personalization, innovation, and purpose. This dynamic dialogue will offer unique cross-industry insights on how to connect deeply with today’s consumer.

Few brands have navigated the retail landscape with the consistency and clarity of Aritzia. In this rare and candid conversation, Brian Hill, Founder and Executive Chair of Aritzia, shares his perspective on what it takes to build and sustain a beloved international brand in today’s competitive environment. From strategic growth to staying culturally relevant, Brian will reflect on Aritzia’s journey, the principles that continue to guide its success, and the leadership mindset required to thrive in a fast-changing world. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from one of Canada’s most visionary retail leaders.