When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Kristopher Bryan and his business partner were forced to move their Lethbridge store Silla online as restrictions kept people at home.
“Everything had to be redone,” Bryan said.
“We pretty much spent the full two months that we were shut down updating all the products to the website… and changing inventory.”
A new report from commercial realtor Avison Young shows e-commerce across the country is continuing to grow steadily after surging during the pandemic.
Today, in-store shopping is once again Silla’s main source of revenue, but online browsing and sales have helped the business open two new locations.
“It’s really neat to see where different products go,” Bryan said. “We’ve shipped worldwide — every continent except Africa — so that’s pretty cool.”
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One local trend the report notes is quick-serve restaurants are reducing their storefront space an average of 10 to 20 per cent, favouring mobile orders and take-out options.
Avison Young finds those quick service outlets weathered the first year following the onset of COVID-19 better than competitors.
But recently, some businesses are seeing more customers dining in.
“Talking to all the other restaurants, even they’re finding — just the last two weeks — there’s still a lot of online, takeout, that type or order, but that’s narrowing down some,” said Vicky Vanden Hoek, the owner and operator of Honkers Pub and Eatery.
She expects that trend to continue as holiday gatherings begin rebounding.
“This Christmas will be normal — if you can say that, it’s sort of on the normal end. We’ve had some bookings and we still have open dates for it. If this was 2019, we’d almost be full,” Vanden Hoek said.
“It’s coming, it’s a lot slower.”