Canadian Retailers, Are You Getting Your Share of the Market?

Canadian business to consumer sales online were $8 billion in 2006.  By 2009 that figure is projected to double to 16 billion (source  eMarketer). Shoppers north of the 49th are starting to purchase big ticket items online despite their top concerns: high shipping costs, wanting to try on for fit and security.

Gord Hotchkiss of Media Post tells us, “Canadians use the Internet more than anyone else in the world. According to comScore , Canadians spend more time online, have more wired households, are more sophisticated in online behavior, do more searches.

Pick your metric; Canada is ahead of the pack when it comes to online usage. In average hours spent online per month, Canadians are top with 40 hours.”

Are you getting your share of the market?

Women make up 55% of Canadians shopping online. It won't be a surprise then that savvy internet clothing retailers, with a view to reducing returns and enhancing customer experience, now offer 360 degree viewing of an item, the ability to see it on a model with your measurements and even suggest accessories to match.

What age group of Canadians shop online and what are they buying?

Anywhere from 25 to 64 years, shoppers are surprising evenly spread over that range and 80% of them must like the experience because that’s the percentage that buy again.

Favourite sites of Canadians are eBay, Chapters and Amazon but with the convenience of shopping 24 hours a day in the peace and quiet of home, after the kids have gone to bed it’s no wonder even small online retailers who listen to their customers and give them what they want are achieving success online.

Jim Okamura, senior partner at J.C. Williams Group states, “Canadian retailers need to provide more than merely store locators on their websites. They need to leverage their multi-channel capabilities through catalogues, the internet and store by providing solutions and tools for shoppers.”

Even if they don’t want to buy online shoppers do want to browse the merchandise and consider their choices before they make a trip to the store which is only possible if a good selection of products is on the website. Canadians are savvy consumers and they want to research. Give them the information they need and they will buy.

Canadian businesses continue to spend the majority of their budgets on traditional media with very little budgeted to online advertising or search marketing to reach all of those Canadians online who are looking for something to buy.

• Canadians spend $28.05 in online advertising per Internet user. The US spends $71.43.

• The U.S. spends almost twice as Canada per capita on search marketing.

With the ability to target geographic areas with online advertising, this looks like a prime opportunity for a progressive company or individual to dominate Canadian online shopping.

Do you really need to ask, “Do I need a website?”