Aug. 8, 2014, Ottawa – E-commerce continues to grow, but Canadian
consumers are more likely to shop with brick-and-mortar stores than
their American counterparts.
Retail e-commerce sales reached $7.7 billion in 2012, up from $6.6
billion in 2011, according to new data from Statistics Canada. In fact,
retail e-commerce sales grew at over five times the pace of the overall
growth in retail trade (16.3 per cent versus 2.9 per cent,
respectively), and accounted for 1.5 per cent of total retail sales in
2012.
Comparatively, retail e-commerce sales in the United States
accounted for 5.2 per cent of that country's total retail sales in
2012.
Over three-quarters of e-commerce sales were attributable
to electronic shopping and mail-order houses (40.6 per cent), as well as
motor vehicle and parts dealers (34.8 per cent).
The remaining
sales were by traditional retailers,
including electronics and appliance stores (7.1 per cent), sporting
goods and hobby stores (two per cent), clothing and clothing accessories
stores (1.2 per cent) and general merchandise stores (less than one per
cent), and other retailers (less than one per cent).
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