I’ve spent hours looking for trustworthy sources of information in order to give you the low down on online customers and their buying potential. I’ve found more behavioral information on Canadians than on US citizens but I believe that the trends are fairly similar.

I’m not stating anything new by saying that “understanding your market is key in defining your business strategy”.

Here are some figures for North American Internet Users that I borrow from eMarketer.com’s “Online Climate Change in Canada” article:

These figures give use a basic idea of the Internet trends which are that:

• two thirds of North Americans (US and Canada) are connected to the Internet
• we can assume that if they’re connected most of them use the Internet fairly often (at least once a month).

In a 2005 Canadian Internet Use Survey published by Canada Statistics we can find more information about what these online users do online:

Here again the relevant information for eCommerce is that in 2005:

• 57% of adult Canadians did online Windows Shopping
• 43% of adult Canadians ordered personal goods and services
• 63% of adult Canadians looked for travel information or made arrangements (like perhaps booking online)
• 57% of adult Canadians did Electronic Banking

In other words, most of 50% of Canadians adults use the Internet to shop. They browse, they use online services and they buy.

I’m anticipating your next question: how much money do they spend?

“2005 E-commerce: Shopping on the Internet” another Canada Statistics report tells us that:

“Canadians ordered just over $7.9 billion worth of goods and services over the Internet for personal or household consumption in 2005, according to data from the new Canadian Internet Use Survey. They placed almost 50 million orders on-line during that year.”

“On average, each adult consumer placed 7.2 orders on-line in 2005, with an average value of $160. In terms of Canadian vendors alone, consumers placed an average of 5.2 orders on-line, with an average value of $176 per order.”

Here are the types of purchases made online by Canadians in 2005:

We also have spending trends from eMarketer.com in the “Canada B2C E-Commerce” report:

Hopefully this information will help you assess the North American online market’s potential and trends.

As I mentioned in my first post, eCommerce isn’t going to slow down. It’s time to gear up and “Surf the eCommerce Wave“

Bookmark to: