Every year CIRA commissions an annual survey exploring how Canadians use the internet and publishes the insights in a new edition of Canada’s Internet Factbook. This year, CIRA is publishing a series of blog posts based on the findings of the 2024 Canada’s Internet Factbook survey. The blog that follows below is the final of four in the series.
On any residential street or rural road in Canada, the to-ing and fro-ing of delivery trucks and vans brimming with all kinds of online purchases is now a common sight. And if you’re driving on a highway outside any large Canadian urban centre, you don’t have to look very hard to spot the massive warehouses and distribution centres working 24/7 to fulfill orders for some of the biggest e-commerce companies in the country.
At 2.8 million square feet, Amazon’s warehouse just south of Ottawa is the largest in the country. Last year, Walmart Canada opened a 430,000 square foot high-tech fulfillment centre in Rocky View County, Alberta, to house thousands of products and fulfill orders from Canadians on Walmart.ca. In 2022, Canadian Tire announced a $3.4 billion investment in its e-commerce operations designed to get a bigger share of Canadians’ online shopping dollar.
E-commerce is big business in Canada and it’s not hard to see why: Canadians love their online shopping. And honestly, why wouldn’t we? It’s fast, convenient and who doesn’t love the dopamine spike you get when the doorbell rings and you realize that must-have item you ordered yesterday has just reached your doorstep.
The shifting landscape of Canadian e-commerce
In Canada’s Internet Factbook we’ve been tracking Canadians’ online shopping habits since 2014, and despite the upheaval caused by the pandemic and its aftermath, these habits have stayed remarkably consistent. While just over a quarter of us (26 per cent) expressed a preference for shopping in person in the latest Factbook survey, 80 per cent said we made an online purchase in the last 12 months. That’s down from a high of 88 per cent in 2021 when the ongoing restrictions related to the pandemic meant there were fewer options for in-person purchases, but the consistency of these numbers over time suggests that online shopping isn’t going away anytime soon.
Where Canadians choose to make their online purchases – either from Canadian e-commerce sites or from businesses owned and operated outside the country – is one area where this year’s survey results mark a major departure from previous years. Just 57 per cent of Canadians expressed a preference for making purchases from Canadian retailers, when they have a choice, down from a high of 71 per cent in 2021.
At a time when Canada’s productivity problem is getting increasing attention from the media and the public, this sharp drop in support for Canadian retailers is an area of significant concern for Canadian businesses and policymakers alike. It’s clear that we need to try our best to support local.
What’s behind the shift in consumer behaviour? On the one hand, Factbook research reveals that Canadian internet users are more comfortable for a whole host of reasons making purchases or payments on Canadian retail (66 per cent) or government websites (64 per cent) than on U.S. retail websites (45 per cent). On the other, the top two most important considerations for Canadians when making a purchase online have to do with dollars and cents, with 60 per cent of us identifying cost and savings as the most important factor and 54 per cent citing shipping cost. Beyond these considerations, how easy it is to make a purchase (48 per cent), the availability of specific items (46 per cent) and the ease with which products can be returned (42 per cent) are also important to Canadians.
It’s not hard to imagine that Canada’s challenging economic climate over the last several years—marked by sharply rising inflation post pandemic—has had a major impact on our online shopping choices. According to Statistics Canada, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3.9 per cent on an annual average basis in 2023, following a 40-year high increase of 6.8 per cent in 2022 and a 3.4 per cent increase in 2021. When almost everything costs more than it did last year, or even last week, many Canadians are looking for whatever cost savings they can get, even if that means choosing a U.S. retailer over a Canadian one.
A website is a must for Canadian businesses
Nevertheless, as Canadians we all must do our part to support Canadian retailers. When you make a purchase from a Canadian website with a .CA domain rather than buying from e-commerce giants that are located outside Canada, you’re contributing to Canada’s GDP, helping create jobs, improving Canada’s productivity, reducing your carbon footprint and making our communities stronger.
This year’s survey results also reinforce the fact that if you’re a Canadian retailer, having a standalone website is important to Canadians when they’re making a purchase: 53 per cent of Canadians agree that having a website makes a business look more credible and 51 per cent agree that they are more likely to do business with a company that has a website. What’s more, 30 per cent of Canadians say they don’t trust businesses or other organizations that don’t have a website. Whether you’re acting as a consumer or operating a small business, .CA is a key economic resource trusted across the country.
Georgia is a Policy & Advocacy Analyst at CIRA where she supports CIRA’s policy development and public affairs. She helps fulfill the Secretariat duties for the Canadian Internet Governance Forum and serves as a Board Director at The Canadian Internet Society.
