Years into Quebec Retailers’ Online Push, Shoppers Still Flock to Stores
Sales are small and our humility is holding online shopping hostage.
Quebec’s numbers about e-commerce sales are shocking and yet, they barely get discussed in our fashion industry.
In November 2025, La Presse reported on online sales in Quebec. These numbers reveal a story that’s rarely spoken about publicly: https://www.lapresse.ca/affaires/entreprises/ventes-en-ligne/une-manne-qui-echappe-aux-detaillants-d-ici/2025-11-12/ventes-en-ligne/pour-la-majorite-ca-demeure-marginal.php
According to the study Portrait de la maturité numérique du commerce de détail au Québec (2025), conducted by Évola Conseil in collaboration with ADRIQ for Détail Québec, 64% of retailers generated at least some revenue online in 2024. But for most, it remained marginal: 57% said less than 10% of their sales came from online. Only 9% of retailers reported that more than half of their revenue came from e-commerce.
Massive budgets pour into platforms, yet the majority of actual sales still happen in person. Some retailers have refused to disclose their online numbers, though many have said they want to grow them. One retailer noted that online stores are primarily used for customers to check inventory and confirm where items are available.
Which raises the question: are we building digital infrastructures simply to generate soulless product directories?
What’s striking isn’t just the gap between investment and payoff, it’s the pressure to exist online at all costs. AI-driven automation is reducing production needs, and freelance creatives in fashion and beauty are already feeling the effects. If the experience remains purely transactional, how much more can it really drive sales?
I remember the early 2010s, when brands invested heavily in e-commerce out of necessity. Shopify and turnkey solutions didn’t exist. Every initiative required programmers, custom platforms, and six-figure budgets. A client recently reminded me he invested over $200,000 to launch a shoppable site.
I also witnessed the pre-e-commerce era firsthand. Senior freelance creatives I represented, trained to the highest levels to craft campaigns, were suddenly asked to shoot dozens of SKUs per day. Budgets fragmented. Some clients balked. To protect our market, I pivoted to representing more junior talent, ensuring senior creative work remained valued while still meeting these new demands.
Much like the recession I had previously experienced where prodution artists had to adapt, comply, find alternative revenue streams, or leave the industry entirely.
Over the years, we built platforms from the ground up with our retailer clients, investing creativity, strategy, and vision to craft meaningful online identities. Along the way, however, the pressure to scale, standardize, and streamline workflows gradually eroded nuance. What began as bold experimentation and distinctive brand expression became predictable, easily trainable, and stripped of the creative detail that once set brands apart.
Now, with automation, AI, and product-based e-commerce, often featuring fake models, minimal creative input, or no human creativity at all, we’re entering a time when online retail barely supports a creative livelihood. When everything is automated across brands, e-commerce becomes generic, predictable, and forgettable. Platforms lose identity, and brands start blending into one another.
The budgets saved through automation might be more profitable, but they haven’t been shown to translate into higher sales yet.
It’s not a retailer’s job to keep fashion and beauty creatives employed, but a seasoned creative’s trained eye can turn cookie-cutter platforms into experiences that feel alive and demand attention.
What we need now is experimentation.
With the numbers above in mind, 64% of companies generating at least some revenue online in 2024, yet 57% making less than 10% of their sales through this channel, as a Quebecer, I know we’re a humble crowd, but perhaps it’s time to embrace audacity, as the risk seems exceptionally low right now to pull the boldest moves.