Boost Online Sales: Your Guide to the Canada Market

We all know that the Canadian market is very fruitful for international business. Many multinational companies are making their own businesses in the Canadian and they have been very successful. However, e-retailers who globalize their business are the real winners here.

61% of the Canadian residents have shopped online in the past year.
67% of them have shopped online from international websites.

Where Do They Shop?

Top Destinations:

The people of Canada like to shop from international platforms, and when they do, they prefer to shop from the companies belonging to the following countries:

9% of them shop from UK e-retailers.
62% of them shop from USA e-retailers.
19% of them shop from Chinese e-retailers.

What Do They Shop?

The Canadian consumer prefer to buy these items when they are using an international website:

Clothing, Accessories, Footwear and Apparel – 40%
Educational and Entertainment (Digital) – 28%
Entertainment and Education (Physical) – 30%

How Do They Find You?

61% of the Canadian users go to the international websites they have used in the past.
33% of them go to the websites they have knowledge of.
32% of them use the websites that they find when searching for a specific product.

Cross-Border E-Commerce Revitalized

28% of the Canadian international website consumers have used their cell phones to buy items.
12% of them have used their cell phones to make the payments.

What Urges Them To Shop Online Internationally?

These are the reasons that Canadian consumers like to buy from international e-commerce websites.

58% of them like to shop online from international websites because of the free shipping.
39% like to shop internationally because of the lower shipping costs.
40% of them like to shop internationally because of the lower overall costs.

What Turns Them Off?

What makes the Canadian consumer stop shopping from international E-retailers?

58% are concerned about postage and shipping being too high.
45% of the Canadians don’t shop internationally because of the taxes, custom and duty fees.
42% of the Canadians don’t shop internationally because of the unclear taxes, custom and duty fees.

Why Do They Abandon Shopping Carts?

61% are concerned about postage and shipping being too high.
32% of the Canadians don’t shop internationally because of the unclear taxes, custom and duty fees.
25% abandon carts because of poor currency conversion rates.

Why Do They Return Your Products?

12% of the Canadian consumers return the products bought form international e-commerce websites.
3% returned the product because they no longer needed it.
5% returned the items because they always intended to return the product.

Freight Forwarding – A Major Issue

21% of the Canadian consumers use a freight forwarding company.
5% of the use the freight forwarding provided the website.
43% use a forwarding company because it is cheaper.
45% used the forwarding companies because the website did not ship to Canada.
33% of them wanted to avoid custom/duty fees.

Currency Conversion

74% of the Canadian consumers like to pay in their own currency than converting it to another.

Lastly, many of the Canadian consumers don’t shop online because of the language barriers. They may like the products on your website, if they cannot find the information they need on your website, chances are they will not buy from you, ever. They will go to another website that provides information in Arabic. You can control this issue and even eliminate it by using Retail Translation Services. This is perhaps the most cost effective way to globalize your website and get more sales.