By Wendy Evans

The North American retail industry, including Canada, the United States and Mexico, has undergone dramatic change over the last decade, particularly in the last five years.  In our research over the past ten years we have identified and studied one of the most important changes - the internationalization of the North American retail market.

In order to uncover the keys to success in international retail, we have studied a number of companies which have crossed borders in North America and beyond and have developed a series of case studies from these companies' experiences.  Five Canadian companies were studied.  Three were chosen in order to track their performance over time as they were included in our previous research; Dylex Ltd., Provigo Inc. and Chateau Stores of Canada.  The other two cases, The Hudson's Bay Company and Jean Coutu Group (PJC) were selected as they demonstrated different approaches to international retailing.