Le Club has successfully blended a passion for cycling and running with a keen eye for style, creating a unique brand that resonates across Canada. But building a national presence requires more than just curated apparel and a strong community; it demands a reliable and comprehensive shipping solution.
Le Club expands community and delivers style across Canada with Canada Post
The Montreal-based retailer relies on Canada Post for not just packages, but the entire Le Club experience, ensuring that every customer, from urban centres to remote communities, feels connected to the brand.
“We’re more than just a store; we’re a community hub celebrating the lifestyle of cycling and running,” said Christophe Perreault, Retail General Manager and Co-owner.
“We’ve always strived to create a unique and engaging experience for our customers, both in-store and online. Canada Post helps us bridge the gap between our physical and digital presence.”
Building a business
In 2017, Le Club’s journey began as Montreal’s first cycling café, a gathering place for cycling enthusiasts to enjoy coffee and connect with fellow riders.
Soon afterward, its first steps into retail were light – offering practical, easy-to-grab items like tire repair kits or colourful socks. For customers, these items become one more reason to pop into the café. For Le Club, they showed what was possible.
One thing was certain: The Le Club team had no desire to become a traditional bike shop, one focused on selling rides and repairing drivetrains. They loved the café concept, and the community built around it, and they pledged to stay true to the brand as they grew any further foray into retail.
“We wanted to remain that specialty, left-field business,” Perreault said.
The brand recognized a growing demand for premium, stylish and high-quality cycling apparel – the kind of things that were difficult to find in Canada, yet popular with riders.
“People want to invest in how they look, and they are willing to get geeky about it,” Perreault continued. “We have different kits and combinations that people can use to show off their identity or style while cycling. That’s where we become attractive.”
Today, the company hosts a collection of brands for cyclists and runners, from MAAP, Universal Colours, and Rapha to Pas Normal Studios, Café du Cycliste, and Satisfy.
When they first ventured into retail, Le Club, chosen as the Canada’s Choice winner of the 2024 Canada Post Tales of Triumph contest, started online with a sharp website and a warehouse space to handle picking, packing and shipping.
“We wanted to build a proper ecommerce operation – where local customers could pick up or even try on items in the café. It was our idea of omnichannel at the time; it was ecommerce with a physical location.”
Soon after, Le Club physically expanded into a fashion-forward apparel store next door. Even after opening that space, however, Le Club maintained its warehouse for online order fulfillment. This allowed the store to focus on providing a premium retail experience without being burdened by logistics.
The team also developed a clever system for replenishing the store and fulfilling online orders using a cyclist with a trailer.
By prioritizing logistics and creating a seamless integration between their online and offline operations, Le Club has built a commerce operation that supports their brand identity and allows them to reach customers across Canada.
That includes their choice in shipping provider.
“From the beginning, we knew we would be shipping all across Canada,” Perreault said. “We needed a partner who could handle the logistics of shipping across a vast and diverse country while maintain our brand.”
Canada Post isn’t just a shipping provider; they’re a vital partner in our growth. Their reliability, extensive reach and commitment to ecommerce have allowed us to connect with our community across Canada, delivering the Le Club experience to every doorstep.
Growing with Canada Post
In the early days, with fewer orders, the Le Club team personally transported packages to the local post office. As their business grew, the convenience of Canada Post’s pickup service became a welcome addition. Eventually, it became an everyday thing, Monday to Friday.
Beyond logistics, Le Club recognized the importance of clear communication and transparency in the shipping process.
“Notification is a pain point for a lot of customers,” Perreault said. “When people buy from small shops online, they place the order, give their credit card number, and then they wait. Often, they don’t get notified as to what’s happening and they wonder, ‘What’s going on? Was that a scam?’ It was important to us that they get a notification and tracking number right away. That’s a big reason we like working with Canada Post.”
Le Club understood that professional logistics were key to competing with larger, more established brands.
“As a small business, on our operations and logistics side, we wanted to make sure we not only looked professional from the start, but that we were professional from day one. Too many small and medium businesses don’t prioritize logistics. They build a cool website and handle shipping afterwards.”
Perreault continued, “To us, if we wanted to compete with more established retailers, or even compete with the brands themselves that sell direct to customers, it was important that we match their level of trust. That means focusing both on the front end – like a website that looks cool and functions well, simple checkout, shipping options, the whole thing – and the back end, where customers get their package on time in a reliable way, delivered by a well-known, trusted carrier. It is important the whole experience from the beginning to end is professional.”
Creating an experience
Le Club feels different from other retailers for a very simple reason – it is different from other retailers.
Its website, for instance, features in-house content. Recognizing that generic stock photos wouldn’t resonate with their local community, they invested in a product designer and photographer.
“We deal with companies from all across the globe, they all produce excellent content,” Perreault said. “However, sometimes they may do a photo shoot in the Australian desert. That’s super cool; don’t get me wrong. But does it really ring a bell and resonate with Montreal customers? No.”
By creating their own content, Le Club can showcase their apparel in a way that reflects the local environment and lifestyle. This allows them to connect with customers on a deeper level and build a stronger sense of community.
Furthermore, in-house content creation extends to their events, ensuring that every gathering is captured with high-quality photos that can be shared with participants and used to promote future events.
Even the in-store experience is carefully curated to reflect Le Club’s brand identity. Instead of displaying multiple sizes of each item, they showcase only one, encouraging customers to interact with the staff and receive personalized assistance.
“This approach creates a cleaner, more inviting atmosphere and allows the staff to provide a more premium, one-on-one shopping experience,” Perreault said.
That attention to detail continues with its shipping partner. Canada Post is now and will continue to be a big part of the Le Club brand experience.
“Canada Post isn’t just a shipping provider; they’re a vital partner in our growth,” Perreault said. “Their reliability, extensive reach and commitment to ecommerce have allowed us to connect with our community across Canada, delivering the Le Club experience to every doorstep.”