Canadians Are Web-Savvy, But Our Businesses Are Not

“Canadians are a web-savvy bunch, but our businesses are not,” writes Murad Hemmadi on CanadianBusiness.com, “While we lead the field on such metrics as number of web pages visited per month and social media usage per capita, Canuck firms lag far behind in terms of e-commerce readiness and sales. Corporate Canada is missing out—Canadians are taking to the Internet to research, compare and purchase products in record numbers.”

It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense does it? As we’ve been examining on the Canadian POS Corporation Blog all week long, Canadian consumers have a love for online shopping, but Canadian business owners are still not taking advantage of it. In Monday’s blog, we took a look at how a Canada Post study has found that Canadian households are receiving more and more deliveries with each passing year.

In Wednesday’s blog, we revealed a number of statistics that highlight the penchant for e-commerce had by our nation’s consumers. One common theme running through each of these blogs, however, is the fact that Canadian merchants don’t seem to have their hands on the pulse of this trend. An infographic presented by Hemmadi further exposes Canada’s businesses for missing out on numerous opportunities to cash in on the online shopping craze in our country.

Just how web-savvy are Canadians? “Canadians are more likely to have access to and use the Internet than residents of any other G20 nation,” reports the infographic. And we are particularly active on social media. 69% of our population visited at least one social media site in 2013. 19 million of us log on to Facebook at least once a month.

How are Canadians using the internet to make product decisions? Canadians spent $22.3 billion online on products and services in 2012, reports the infographic. There were a total of 105 million online shopping transactions made in that year. Such spending actually outdoes our American counterparts. Canadians are smart about their shopping choices, however. 93% of us search for and research products online before making purchases.

So how un-web-savvy are Canadian businesses? “Less than half of the country\’s businesses have so much as a website, let alone one enabled for e-commerce,” reports the infographic. Apparently, among many of Canada’s business owners, there is a lack of understanding about how the internet even works. The infographic reports that 49% of small business owners want to use the internet to promote their businesses, but need help.

What is the result of Canadian business owners not utilizing e-commerce? Simply put, Canadians shop elsewhere. 68% of Canadian online shoppers purchase from retailers outside of Canada, says the infographic. “So e-commerce makes up a much smaller portion of Canada\’s retail economy than for other major consumer countries,” it reads, “And the internet contributes less to Canada\’s GDP growth than the average for mature economies.”

At Canadian POS Corporation, we’re convinced that that simply has to change! Don’t let your company miss out on the many opportunities presented to it by Canada’s online shoppers. For more information about our fantastic e-commerce solution, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 1-877-748-2884. You may also email us at info@localhost.