More than ever, Canadians are going online to shop for their loved ones this holiday season. According to various reports, it is estimated that approximately 20 percent of the holiday gifts purchased this year will occur online in Canada, a total that represents one in every five gifts.
Although seemingly significant, that proportion pales in comparison to other nations world round. As compared to the online shopping habits of the United States, Great Britain and Germany, Canadians should be considered laggards. According to an eMarketer report, 90 percent of British web users are expected to shop online at some point this year. As far as the U.S. is concerned, 70.3 percent of internet users in the country had made online purchases in the previous year, trailing the U.K where that total stood at 82.5 percent. In comparison, only 56.9 percent of Canadian internet users elected to purchase something online.
Canadians, however do seem to be more open to online shopping alternatives than in years passed. According to Yahoo! more Canadians are expected to do online shopping this year as compared to any year previous. This means that Canada represents somewhat of an emerging market for e-commerce firms, who can grow significantly if internet users had more online shopping options says Google Canada’s head of industry for retail, Rafe Petkovic.
Comparing Canada with bigger markets like the U.S., the U.K and Germany, Petkovic said that, “They are certainly markets that are very, very far advanced in comparison to some of the most nascent markets, of which I think Canada is one.”
“That’s not to say it’s going to take five to six years to get to a state of e-commerce sophistication, because the benefit that Canadian retailers have is they can steal with pride and learn the lessons that have been painfully learned by their peer set in other markets around the globe. So I’m very bullish and optimistic about the opportunities that exist for Canadian retailers online.”
Online Marketing Director of home improvement company Lowes, Sonny Kekelj also has a similar stance in this regard adding that “The demand here in Canada is increasing rapidly and I think you’re seeing retailers respond to that.”
“I think a growing number of Canadians are really turning to the web and digital channels to do their shopping. Whether they buy online or not, certainly they’re browsing, they’re doing comparison shopping.”
In order to increase the propensity of online shopping in Canada, it is necessary that retailers operating in our country take aggressive steps and improve their online shopping services by offering attractive deals and an enjoyable user experience. Lowes for example offers free WiFi service to its consumers so that they can use their mobile devices to compare prices, read reviews or search their required products and related information.
This rising usage of smartphones and tablets while shopping is definitely providing valuable data, which has been subject to a recent study of Google. According to this research of 1,000 random shoppers in Canada during the month September, 64 percent of tablet users and 55 percent of smartphone users stated their plans to use these gadgets while conducting holiday shopping in a store. A high ratio of smartphone and tablet users (74 percent and 80 percent) left a retail store during last year’s holiday shopping season because they found a better deal online.
It is time for Canadian retailers to gear up and start adapting to the various ways new technology is being used for and during shopping. However, it must be considered that commencing an online shopping experience brings with it several threatening challenges such as managing inventory, offering affordable shipping and most importantly making a considerable investment in order to run e-commerce operations as securely and efficiently as possible.
Moreover, before launching an online storefront, investors are require to do the required designing, planning and subsequent testing, which can take 6 to 8 months. They should also be ready to deal with glitches and snafus such as the shipment of incorrect items or the cancellation of merchandise orders and so on.
Despite of all these issues, Canadian retailers need to move forward by hiring dedicated staff members who will aid in conducting extensive testing to overcome all the aforementioned problems and compete against their rivals. Otherwise, these retailers will not only lose consumers to local online rival stores, but also to the ones which are operating from the U.S. and around the world.
U.S. based online stores are gaining more popularity in Canada with each passing day and securing a respectable customer base by offering an easy means of acquiring quality products at comparably low prices. Such offers by U.S. based online stores are so attractive that Canadians do not even mind paying extra duties or shipping costs on the imported items.
Source: Vancouver Sun
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