Marketplace and Modernization changes

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In 2023, the provincial government announced the modernization of the marketplace to create more convenience and choice for consumers. In addition to more retailers selling alcohol, it was announced that LCBO will become the exclusive wholesaler for all retail, bars and restaurants selling alcohol, and a new ‘cost-plus’ wholesale pricing would be developed that was consistent for all retailers.

At the same time, LCBO has embarked on a multi-year program called Future State Modernization (FSM) that will strengthen our IT systems, and streamline our business processes, improving our operations for our company and our stakeholders.  

Staying updated on Future State Modernization Release R1b

This page provides a weekly update on key known issues related to the launch and update of several LCBO systems on April 1, as part of LCBO’s Future State Modernization. 

It includes the status of key known issues and the work underway to resolve them, assuring hospitality licensees have the latest information. Transparency is important to us, as is your feedback. If you experience issues, not reflected on this page, please continue to connect directly with your Account Manager.

Ongoing improvements: As of July 3, 2026

• Orders and notifications

• You will now be able to see which, if any, products in your cart are resulting in “restricted” messaging in your cart preventing you from checking out. This will allow you to remove any “restricted” products from your cart for a smoother checkout experience. Over the coming weeks, you should experience less instances of “restricted” messaging in your cart.

• Some orders are taking longer than normal to deliver – we appreciate your patience. To ensure that orders are moving and the status is accurately recorded in our systems, we are re-processing orders. You should be aware that this may mean that you get email notifications for shipping or delivery confirmations for orders that you have already received or for orders that remain outstanding. If you already have received your order, please ignore these notifications. This process will be complete by the end of next week.

• There have been some instances of price differences of certain products in wholesale.lcbo.com. We have removed affected products from lcbo.com and wholesale.lcbo.com until the issue has been resolved. Affected customers will be contacted directly to process reconciliations.

• Data & access permissions:  There have been some data issues that are preventing a small group of customers from accessing wholesale.lcbo.com; this is being prioritized for resolution and we are communicating with customers as access is granted.  In the meantime, please shop in any LCBO or TBS store.

• Invoices: We recognize that your invoices do not include some information including invoice number and company name. We’re pleased to share that this will be resolved by July 17. If you have not been receiving any invoices, you can expect this to be resolved by the end of July.

• Inventory: We continue to experience discrepancies in our online inventory and actual inventory/product availability. We are prioritizing this issue for resolution.

• Claims:

• If your claim has been denied, you will now receive an automated email from LCBO specifying why your claim was rejected.

• Some hospitality licensees are still experiencing issues when submitting a claim. If you encounter an issue when submitting your claim, please contact your Account Manager. Claims reminders:

• You can only submit your claim when the order is in “Complete status”. 

• When signing the BOL, if you are unable to count at the time, please write “Subject to Count” on the BOL. You have 72 hours to ensure that the shipment is correct. If you experience an issue submitting a claim for a shortage, you must email your account manager with 72 hours of delivery.

Reminders

• Onboarding: It may take longer than normal for newly-licensed hospitality licensees to onboard with LCBO as we work through a backlog of data to be updated. While we work to get these customers online access as soon as possible, we encourage them to shop our retail stores. Our store employees can put a special measure in place so your in-store orders can be processed going forward.

• Order administration: We have implemented a solution to allow corporate office users to utilize the same email address for multiple customers. While this solution still requires separate profiles/logins for each customer, we hope this alleviates the challenge of needing a separate email address for each. We continue to evaluate a more fulsome solution to enable order administration for multiple customers under one user profile and will provide an update when available.

• Shopping in store: Thank you for your ongoing patience with the new pricing override process at checkout – we know this adds time to your in-store experience. Our teams have been working hard behind the scenes to improve this experience, and we are pleased to share that a solution will be in place later this summer.

• Inventory visibility: We recognize that LCBO inventory availability is no longer visible until checkout, which may result in additional time spent reconciling your cart. While we’ve enabled dropshipping with nearly 300 suppliers – increasing choice and flexibility for licensees – this change means our system is not currently able to validate inventory across all supplying sources throughout the buying journey. We are actively listening to your feedback and will continue to explore opportunities to improve your experience.

Who do I contact if I am experiencing issues?

Please reach out to licensee@lcbo.com.