With the end of the year fast approaching, Google has revealed new data on Canadians shopping habits amid the COVID-19 pandemic and leading up to the holidays.
Most notably, Google found that 30 percent of Canadians say they’re currently nervous to shop in-store, given the global health crisis. Further, 35 percent of Canadians noted that they feel social distancing measures make it harder to shop. Those that are still turning to brick-and-mortar stores to shop have driven searches for “curbside pick up” to increase by over 3000 percent year-over-year.
Overall, the pandemic has led Canadians to approach holiday shopping quite differently, according to Google. In particular, 61 percent of Canadian holiday shoppers say they will shop more online this year.
What’s more, 33 percent of Canadian shoppers who normally go to stores for Black Friday are saying they won’t do that this year. Nearly 30 percent of Canadians are also even planning to order gifts online and have them shipped directly to friends and family.
Interestingly, though, Google found that 33 percent of Canadian consumers have shopped with a store/retailer that they hadn’t before tried prior to the pandemic.
To help businesses further promote themselves, Google has also made it free for merchants to list their products on the Google Shopping tab in Canada.
