Retail marketing agency in Toronto

Bring more shoppers through your doors and to your online store, measured by visits and sales. Retail marketing in Toronto is the local search, Google Shopping and local inventory ads, social media, email, SMS and seasonal campaigns that help independent stores, specialty retailers and multi-location chains win shoppers in person and online. Canada Create is a retail marketing agency that has worked from its Toronto office at 126 Willowdale Ave., Suite #3, in North York, since 2008, and is a BBB Accredited Business with an A+ rating.

Retail marketing has six areas of work, and your proposal names the ones your stores need:

• Local search: a Google Business Profile for each store, with hours, photos and products.
• Inventory in search: Google Shopping and local inventory ads fed from your product data.
• Seasonal campaigns: paid campaigns planned around the retail calendar.
• Social media and video: content and local creator partnerships that bring people in.
• Email, SMS and loyalty: consent-based messages that bring customers back.
• Measurement: calls, direction requests, online and pickup orders, promo codes and point-of-sale data.

Retail marketing now connects product discovery, stock information and the in-store experience. Shoppers check stock on their phones before they drive, compare prices in the aisle, read reviews in the parking lot and expect the same experience in store and online. The retailers who grow treat their website, Google profile, social channels and stores as one shop with many doors.

How shoppers find and choose a store today

Online discovery can shape a visit long before a shopper reaches the store. A shopper searches “running shoes near me”, “baby store open now” or the name of a product, sees a map with nearby stores, checks whether the item is in stock, scans reviews and photos and decides where to go. Others discover a store on Instagram or TikTok, save the post and visit on the weekend. Loyal customers open your email or text because a new collection arrived.

That means retail advertising has to answer three questions fast: do you have what I want, is it worth the trip, and why you instead of the big box store or the marketplace? Independent and specialty retailers win on expertise, curation, service and community. Chains win on convenience and availability. Your marketing should lead with whichever advantage is truly yours.

Local search and Google Business Profile for stores

For a physical store, your Google Business Profile helps customers check where you are and what to expect before a visit. For each eligible location, our profile work covers accurate hours, including holiday opening times, store and product information, photos, accessibility and pickup details, and updates for new arrivals and events. Each eligible customer-facing location can have its own profile; keyword stuffing the business name or creating profiles for locations that do not exist breaks Google’s rules and can get a profile suspended.

Reviews are part of the decision. Our review support focuses on genuine customer feedback and appropriate responses, alongside accurate store information. Never offer discounts or gifts in exchange for Google reviews; Google’s policy prohibits incentives. Fake reviews and undisclosed material connections can also create misleading-advertising concerns. Our SEO services cover local search for single stores and multi location chains, including useful location pages that help customers find the right store. Engagements are custom-scoped, with a proposal after discovery.

Show your inventory where shoppers search

Retailers with a product catalogue can put their stock directly in front of shoppers on Google. With a Merchant Center account connected to your inventory, products can appear in free listings and Shopping ads, and with local inventory, Google can show that a product is available at a nearby store, often with an “in store” or “pick up today” label. This gives shoppers another way to check local availability before deciding to visit.

It only works if the data is clean: correct prices, availability that updates as stock moves, good product titles and photos, and product and store information appropriate to the chosen listing format. Integrations for Shopify, Lightspeed and Square can share product or local inventory data with Google, depending on the system, market and account setup; we help set up the feed, address disapprovals and build campaigns around it. If you also sell online, our ecommerce agency and Shopify advertising teams connect the two channels.

Plan campaigns around the retail calendar

Retail runs on seasons, and the best marketing is planned months ahead. The Canadian retail year typically includes back to school in August and September, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the December holiday peak, Boxing Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, plus category seasons such as patio and garden in spring or winter outerwear in the fall. Each one needs creative, landing pages, email and ad budgets ready before demand peaks, not the week it arrives.

Between peaks, marketing keeps the store top of mind: new arrivals, in store events, workshops and demos, local partnerships and community causes. Ongoing social posts and emails can be scoped around new arrivals, store events and the resources your team can support.

Social media, video and local influencers

Retail is visual, and social media is where many shoppers discover products. Short video of new arrivals, staff picks, styling ideas, unboxing and behind the scenes content works well on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. Paid social can promote products and events to local audiences. Where your permissions, customer consent and platform rules support it, the scope may include relevant product advertising for past website visitors.

Local creators can bring a store to new audiences, but every paid, gifted or affiliate relationship must be disclosed clearly, and the brand is responsible for making sure creators do it. See our social media management, social media advertising and influencer marketing services.

Email, SMS and loyalty: sell more to the customers you have

Your existing customers can be a valuable audience for repeat purchases. Email, SMS and loyalty support can cover new arrivals, event invitations, seasonal reminders and birthday offers for customers you have permission to contact. The agreed scope can reflect their product interests and the stores they use.

Commercial email and text programs need an appropriate CASL consent basis or applicable exception, sender identification and unsubscribe handling. Keep receipts and order updates separate from promotions. Our email marketing service provides welcome, browse, post-purchase and win-back communications aimed at repeat purchases.

Retail advertising rules to get right

Retail advertising is regulated mainly by the federal Competition Act and provincial consumer protection laws. A few rules matter in almost every campaign:

• Sale and “regular price” claims. A regular or “was” price used to claim savings must meet the applicable volume or time test: a substantial volume of genuine sales at that price or higher within a reasonable period, or a good-faith offer at that price or higher for a substantial period.
• All in pricing. Mandatory fixed fees must be included in the advertised attainable price; government-imposed charges such as sales tax are an exception.
• Stock and availability. Advertising a bargain you do not have in reasonable quantity can be a bait and switch problem; say “while quantities last” only when it is true and stock is reasonable.
• Environmental and “made in Canada” claims must be accurate and supportable.
• Quebec has French language requirements for commercial publications, signage and websites of businesses operating in Quebec; the applicable rules and exceptions need review for your situation.

This is general information, not legal advice. We check offer details against the records you provide and implement the claims and requirements you or your legal adviser confirm before your approval. Our work is not a legal or regulatory compliance review.

Related guide: How franchises and chains win in every local market.

What your retail team needs to provide

Before launching a campaign, agree who owns the information it depends on. Your team confirms store hours, product prices, stock and pickup availability, promotion dates and the records supporting an offer. Identify who updates those details when products sell out or a promotion changes, so the advertising and storefront do not describe different offers.

Tell us which ecommerce, inventory and point-of-sale systems you use and what account access and reporting data can be authorised. We assess the supported feed and measurement options for that setup; a named platform does not mean every inventory field, branch or sale will connect automatically. The proposal sets out the work, dependencies and responsibilities.

Assign an approver for campaign content, offer details and budget decisions, along with any professional review your business requires. Location-level sales, pickup and promotion feedback helps interpret performance where it is available. Missing data remains a reporting limitation, not a reason to label every direction request or estimated visit as a sale.

The kinds of stores we market

Retail is many businesses that happen to share a till. A grocer lives on the weekly flyer and the walk from the parking lot; a direct to consumer skincare brand lives on product pages, shipping promises and the second order. The groups below each have their own page, because the work changes with the way their buyers shop.

Online stores and direct to consumer brands

Brands that sell mainly through their own Shopify or WooCommerce store need traffic that converts at a cost the product can carry. The levers are category pages that rank, product detail pages with clear photos, sizes and shipping times, a feed that keeps Shopping ads accurate, and email that turns a first order into a habit. When you want one team to plan and run the whole online side, start with our ecommerce agency service. When the store itself needs building or rebuilding, our ecommerce website builds and Shopify development for Canadian brands cover the platform work, and custom Shopify app development handles the features a theme cannot do on its own, such as a product configurator or a custom subscription box flow.

Marketplace sellers

Many brands sell on Amazon alongside their own site. The marketplace brings shoppers who are ready to buy, but it sets the rules, owns the customer relationship and charges for visibility. Listing quality, review volume, stock levels and advertising all decide whether your product appears on the first screen. Our Sponsored product and brand campaigns on Amazon are managed with your own site in mind, so the two channels support each other rather than bidding against each other for the same shopper.

B2B and wholesale ordering

Distributors and brands that sell to other stores, salons, clinics or offices need trade pricing behind a login, minimum order quantities, account terms the owner sets, quick reorder and purchase order fields. Retail shoppers should never see those wholesale tiers. We set up wholesale ordering on Shopify for companies that want their trade buyers to order online instead of by email and phone.

Grocery stores and supermarkets

Independent grocers, ethnic supermarkets, butchers and bakeries compete on freshness, specials, selection and convenience. Shoppers check opening hours, look for a weekly flyer, and choose by distance and what they can find on the shelf that the chain store down the road does not carry. Our marketing plans for grocery stores cover the whole picture, from the Google Business Profile to loyalty email, and weekly specials advertising for grocers puts the flyer in front of nearby households on search, maps and social.

Furniture and home stores

Furniture is a considered purchase. A couple may browse for weeks, compare fabrics and dimensions online, visit two showrooms and then decide on delivery dates and financing. That means the website must show real room photos, measurements and lead times, while ads keep the store in mind through a long decision. We offer the full marketing plan for furniture retailers and focused showroom visit campaigns for furniture stores for owners who want the paid side only.

Florists

Flower shops sell by occasion and by deadline: a birthday today, a sympathy arrangement for a service tomorrow, Valentine's Day and Mother's Day for everyone at once. Buyers want to see the arrangement, pick a delivery area and time, write a card message and pay in a few taps on a phone. Our online ordering websites for florists are built around that path, with delivery zones and cut off times the shop controls.

Pet stores

Pet supply stores win on trust and repeat visits. Owners come back for the same food every few weeks, ask staff for advice, and choose shops that carry specialty diets, offer grooming or host adoption days. Searches are local and practical: the brand of food plus the neighbourhood, or a pet store open now. Our advertising that brings pet owners into the store focuses on those nearby searches and on reorder reminders.

Fashion, clothing and jewellery boutiques

Fashion and jewellery sell on image, fit and confidence. Shoppers discover pieces on Instagram and TikTok, then search the brand name, check the size guide and return policy, and look for the item in stock in their size. Fashion marketing for apparel brands covers the brand and campaign side, SEO for clothing and jewellery stores covers collection and product page visibility, and paid social and search for fashion and jewellery covers ads built around new drops and seasonal edits.

Licensed cannabis retailers

Cannabis stores face tight promotion limits, and several ad platforms restrict the category. Organic search and the Google Business Profile carry much of the load, with menus, store hours and accurate product information doing the selling within the rules. Our search visibility for licensed cannabis stores is written with those limits in mind.

Specialty shops and omnichannel retailers

Bike shops, kitchen stores, toy stores, bookshops, gift shops and hardware stores often sell both in store and online. That omnichannel setup brings its own questions: does the website show live stock by location, can a shopper buy online and pick up in store, and do the loyalty points work in both places? Our retail marketing agency service is the place to start when store visits and online sales need to grow together.

The online store, checkout and product content

Every channel on this page sends people to the same place, so the store itself sets the ceiling on what marketing can do. A slow theme, a confusing size chart or a surprise fee at checkout wastes every click you paid for.

Shopify or WooCommerce

Both platforms run well for Canadian stores. Shopify is hosted, quick to launch and has a large app ecosystem, which suits most direct to consumer brands and stores that want the platform to handle security and updates. WooCommerce runs on WordPress, gives full control of the code and the hosting, and suits stores with heavy content, unusual product logic or an existing WordPress site. The deciding questions are your catalogue size, the systems you must connect, who will maintain it, and how much custom work your products need. Platform subscriptions, apps and payment processing are paid to those vendors and shown separately from our fees.

Checkout, shipping and return policy pages

Shoppers abandon carts when shipping costs appear late, when delivery dates are vague or when the checkout asks for an account before payment. A fast checkout with guest purchase, saved wallets, clear shipping thresholds, taxes shown by province and a visible return policy page removes most of those exits. Shopify conversion rate optimization tests these changes on real traffic, so decisions come from what shoppers do, not from opinion.

Product photography and video

Photos sell the product before the copy does. A consistent set of clean white background shots, lifestyle images, detail close ups and scale shots helps shoppers decide and reduces returns. Our product photography covers catalogue and lifestyle shoots, and product and store video produces short clips for product pages, Reels and ads.

Speed, accessibility and upkeep

Large images, too many apps and heavy scripts slow stores down, and mobile shoppers leave quickly. Stores selling in Ontario should also plan for AODA and build to WCAG so every shopper can browse and buy with a keyboard or a screen reader. Website maintenance and security keeps plugins, themes and payment pages patched after launch.

What retail marketing costs in Toronto and what changes the fee

Retail marketing is quoted in writing after a free review. These are the main drivers:

• Stores: the number of locations that need profiles, pages and local campaigns.
• Catalogue and feeds: how many products feed Shopping and local inventory ads, and how clean the product data is.
• Channels: search, maps, social, email, SMS and loyalty, alone or together.
• Seasonal calendar: how many campaigns run through the year and how much creative each needs.
• Measurement: the point-of-sale, ecommerce and promo code data available for reporting.
• Ad spend: paid directly to Google, Meta or other platforms and shown separately from our fees.

How to compare retail marketing agencies in Toronto

• Who does the work? Ask who runs your campaigns, product feeds and content each month.
• What is delivered each month? Campaigns, posts, emails and feed fixes should be listed in writing.
• How are store visits and sales reported? Look for calls, direction requests, orders and promo code use, not only clicks.
• Who owns the accounts? Your Google Business Profiles, ad accounts, Merchant Center and customer lists should stay in your name.
• What do other retailers say? Read the agency’s Google reviews and ask for examples of retail work.

Be careful with any agency that promises a set increase in sales before it has seen your stores, stock and margins. Results depend on your products, prices, locations and competitors.

Measure store visits and sales, not just clicks

Retail marketing is harder to measure than ecommerce because the sale often happens at the till. We track what can be tracked directly (calls, direction requests, website orders, pickup orders, coupon and promo code use, loyalty signups) and use platform store visit estimates and point of sale data where available. Store-visit figures are modelled estimates for eligible accounts, while direction requests and calls are separate actions. We compare these signals with point-of-sale results and campaign costs, explaining attribution gaps before shifting budget.

Start with a free marketing review of your stores, website, Google profiles and campaigns. You get a custom proposal with every fee in writing. Call (416) 273-9030, Monday to Friday, 9 am to 6 pm, and Saturday, 10 am to 2 pm. After hours, our 24/7 AI agent answers the toll-free line, +1 (800) 808-9235, and we’ll follow up the next business morning. Established in 2008, Canada Create serves businesses across Canada; our lead generation and Google Ads teams work alongside your retail program.