E-commerce is "going strong" in Canada, says Multi-Channel Retailing, a new survey conducted in April 2006 by J.C. Williams Group that examined the shopping habits of Canadians.

Women now lead the way in e-commerce, representing 55 per cent of the Canadians purchasing online. There are little differences between the percentage of Canadians buying online between the ages of 25 and 64, which the survey authors point to as a tremendous opportunity with such a widespread market penetration.

Respondents who had shopped online in the past six months spent $447 on average. Almost nine out of ten online shoppers were satisfied with their experience and 80 per cent of those who had shopped online in the past six months made two or more purchases.

"In order to sustain high growth rates, it is important for us to observe e-commerce buying behaviour among mainstream Canadian shoppers, especially the female head of household", says Jim Okamura, senior partner at J.C. Williams Group. "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 stores by providing solutions and tools for shoppers."

In addition to direct online sales, the survey also found that as many as 83 per cent of Canadians purchased a product in a "bricks and mortar" store after doing research online. Interestingly, Canadian online shoppers receive more catalogues than those who did not shop online and more than 14% made an in-store purchase after receiving a catalogue. Frequent catalogue recipients reported the highest levels of online spending, indicating that cross-marketing with the web and catalogues can translate into higher overall sales.

"Retailers in Canada have an extraordinary opportunity to grab hold of a rapidly expanding market," said Pat Bartlett, vice president of Canada Post's direct marketing division. "The study clearly shows that Canadians are savvy consumers whose lifestyle behaviour demands multiple channels to shop and a breadth of brands to choose from. In our experience of working with leading Canadian and US retailers, by introducing an additional channel, such as a catalogue, a retailer can expand their product offering to three times that of a traditional store and stands to gain as much as 20 per cent more of their customers' wallet share."

Product selection, superior customer service and guaranteed merchandise return methods were identified as essential elements for companies to win a sale from an online shopper.

Security concerns are still one of the main barriers to e-commerce for those who have not shopped online, with some survey respondents indicating that they are still reluctant to provide this information online.

Merchants can benefit from enhancing their online security. Visa Canada noted that it is addressing security concerns with the introduction of enhanced security features through programs like Verified by Visa(R) and CVV2, the three-digit code on the back of the Visa card.

Multi-Channel Retailing was co-sponsored by Canada Post, HP Canada and Visa Canada.

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