Predicting The Breaking Of Online Shopping Records This Holiday Season

At Canadian POS Corporation, we’d be willing to bet that during this year’s upcoming holiday season, Canada will experience its biggest online shopping boom ever! Taking a look at the trends of the past few years, it only stands to reason that e-commerce solutions would continue to grow in popularity amongst Canadian shoppers. For years, we’ve been preaching about the benefits of online shopping.

But, you don’t have to take our word for it. Shortly after the new year, Melody McKinnon of CanadiansInternet.com, revealed that 2015 was Canada’s largest online holiday shopping year. Citing a MasterCard SpendingPulse report, McKinnon revealed that the final two months of the year were in fact, record breaking.

“Both November and December 2015 broke online sales records, claiming the highest percentage of all retail sales,” she reports, “ November brought the highest eCommerce sales ever in Canada, at 9.7%. December broke that record when online sales rose to 9.9% of all retail sales in Canada. While holiday retail shopping as a whole saw only a modest increase of 2% from 2014, online shopping in Canada jumped 20% from 2014 (the largest year-over-year increase in the survey’s decade-long history).”

That last statistic is especially important. It highlights the fact that, while online shopping is exceedingly popular during the holiday season when shopping increases dramatically, people are taking to the internet to make purchases all year long. Sensibly, Canadian merchants should be allowing their customers to make purchases from their websites in order to cash in on the craze.

Sarah Quinlan is the Senior Vice President of Market Insights for MasterCard Advisors. “Canadians are embracing online shopping and we aren’t surprised to see the growth in this category continue to trend upward as it has over the last three years,” she was quoted as saying, “When you compare the relatively slow growth of retail overall with the quick growth of online shopping, it shows the strength and growing preference of the online channel for today’s shopper.”

And while online shopping continues to grow in popularity, it hasn’t eliminated the need for brick-and-mortar stores. It is unlikely that there will ever be a reason to close down physical stores altogether. After all, there are still quite a lot of people who enjoy their traditional shopping experiences. However, the fact remains that there is a growing need for people to be able to shop online as well.

McKinnon notes that 80 percent of consumers are “omnishoppers”. These are people who combine their shopping experiences with in-store visits, computers, tablets and smartphones. As well, many Canadians who prefer the in-store experience also like the idea of being able to browse online first. That way, they’re able compare prices and better assess the stores they plan on visiting to make their purchases in person.

For more information on how you can begin selling your products via your website, call Canadian POS Corporation at 1-877-748-2884 or email us at info@localhost and ask about our fantastic e-commerce solution!