Canadians: Online Browsers, Not Buyers
July 18, 2007 by Mark Evans
Filed under Business
According to a new survey done by consulting firm J.C. Williams and Yahoo, Canadians are not the most enthusiastic online shoppers in the world – which really comes as no surprise, especially if you’re a Canadian retailer who has been cautious about plunging onto the Web.
The survey found that while more than two-thirds of Canadians like to shop online, only 53% are willing to actually make an online purchase. Nevertheless, eMarketer expects Canadians will double their online spending to $16-billion by 2009 from $8-billion in 2006. Not sure why eMarketer is so bullish given how Canadians behave but maybe they know something we don’t know.
I wonder how much of this relates to the poor quantity, and quality of Canadian ecommerce sites, and the predominance of US sites online.