The holiday season is nearly here, bringing with it many deals and increasingly busier retail locations.
With that said, more and more Canadians are turning towards online shopping to beat the rush of customers in brick-and-mortar stores.
In fact, sixty-five percent of Canadians say they plan to do some or all of their holiday shopping online this season, up from fifty-five percent last year, according to a new survey by FedEx Express Canada.
The findings come from the courier company’s fifth annual FedEx Online Shopping Intentions survey, which asked nearly 1,500 randomly select Canadian adults in October about their digital shopping habits.
Meanwhile, six percent of Canadian shoppers said that they plan to shop online for the first time this year.
Notably, respondents from Ontario (68 percent), Atlantic Canada (67 percent), and British Columbia (67 percent) were the most likely to shop this season, while Alberta (62 percent), Quebec (61 percent), percent) and Saskatchewan (58 percent) had the lowest percentages among those surveyed.
Seventy-four percent of online shoppers said they plan to start shopping before Cyber Monday, which falls on November 27th. There weren’t many last minute shopper respondents, either, with less than 1 percent of those surveyed saying they plan to start online holiday shopping one week before the holidays.
Eight-seven percent of survey respondents said they plan to do online shopping from home, while 76 percent said they’ll do so with a laptop or desktop computer over a mobile phone or tablet.
Overall, 69 percent of respondents said that online shopping provided ease of use and more variety in terms of retailers and products offered.
“Since we first published this survey in 2012, we have witnessed Canada’s steady embrace of digital solutions for the holiday season,” said Lisa Lisson, president of FedEx Express Canada, in a press statement. “In 2012, we were impressed that 55 percent of respondents planned on shopping online for the holidays, today that number is 65 percent. Canadians across the country are shopping online which is terrific news for our country’s e-tailers.”
Source: Canada Newswire
