Canada not E-Commerce Savvy

Truth is, we’re really behind the times.

According to an article on Strategy Online, only 78 of 100 retailers observed by Google and New York-based think tank L2 had any sort of e-commerce function to their websites. Of the 11 who didn’t, some were internationally owned companies who simply haven’t invested in a Canadian version of their e-commerce infrastructure.  Others had started to do e-commerce, then stopped.

What does this mean for Canadian retailers?  It means that our hard earned money is going elsewhere, mostly south of the border.

Courtesy of http://justshoppingsmart.com/

It used to be that cross-border shopping involved hopping into a car and driving across to the nearest state to take advantage of special sales or prices.  Now, it means a more convenience way to purchase what we normally would buy from local stores.  Amazon, the e-commerce giant, is posing a big threat to these Canadian companies, causing them all to reconsider the online shopping market.

Despite online shopping growing, we’re falling behind everyone else.  Obviously something’s got to change, but how quickly can something like this grow?  I guess it’s up to some of the 78 retailers who are already doing something about this to step up and see what can happen.