Statistics Canada has just released its “Electronic commerce and technology” report for 2007.

In 2006, online sales in Canada reached $49.9 billion, a staggering increase of almost 40% compared to 2005 with $31.4 billion sales related to B2B and $15.1 billion related to B2C.

Here is what the report reveals for 2007:

• Online sales have increased 26% in 2007. This is the sixth consecutive year confirming a sustained two digit growth in eCommerce in Canada.

• With an estimated $62.7 billion in online revenue in 2007, private sector businesses still dominated online sales. eCommerce increased 25% to $58.2 billion for private sector firms, while public sector eCommerce rose 30% to almost $4.5 billion.

• In the private sector, business-to-business (B2B) sales accounted for 62% of online sales in 2007, down from 68% in 2006, while the proportion of online business-to-consumer (B2C) sales climbed from 32% to 38% in the same period.

• Four sectors continue to account for the majority of the value of online sales:
  - wholesale trade (17%),
  - transportation and warehousing (16%),
  - manufacturing (15%) and,
  - retail trade (10%).

Even though this confirms the two digit increase trend for eCommerce in North America, Canada’s online market penetration is still lagging behind compared to the USA.

With online sales accounting for only 2% of total sales revenue and an increase of only 1% in 5 years, Canada’s performance is far behind the USA’s. The US boasts 3.4% of total sales revenue and an increase of half a point compared to 2.9% in 2006 (read US Quaterly Retail eCommerce Sales - 4th quarter 2007 report).

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