Online shopping gains momentum

In the build-up to this year’s holiday season, Canadian online shopping increased by 14.5% over last year, while in-store sales dropped by 2.1%, says Moneris Solutions Corporation.

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Moneris, which processes credit and debit purchases, analyzed transactions in Canada between Dec. 3 and 16. In this time, apparel saw the largest increase in online spending, at 31.1%, compared to the same period in 2012. Entertainment purchases grew 29.9%, household goods grew 22.6%, hotels purchases increased by 17.5% and specialty retail by 11%.

Within the apparel category, women’s ready-to-wear retailers experienced the highest year-over-year increase in spending, at 67.5%. In the specialty retail category, shoes (56.6%) and sporting goods (36.3%) were the most popular items purchased online by Canadian shoppers.

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Within the specialty retail category, jewellery stores and cosmetic stores saw their in-store sales drop by11.6% and 8.3%, respectively. Interestingly, while in-store consumer electronic purchases were down by 13.1%, online purchases of these items jumped by 23.1% during the same period. This may suggest that Canadian shoppers preferred to buy these items using their mobile devices rather than braving the crowds and line-ups in store—a trend also experienced on Cyber Monday 2013 (which saw its year-over-year sales of these big-ticket items increase by 45.8%).

Regionally, all provinces experienced a modest overall decrease in in-store spending during the pre-holiday period, as compared to last year. Prince Edward Island saw its spending fall by 5.9% per cent, followed by New Brunswick and Manitoba, at 5.2% and 5.1%, respectively. Alberta experienced the smallest year-over-year drop in in-store spending, at 1.3% per cent, followed by Saskatchewan (1.3%) and Ontario (1.6%).

Read: E-commerce slowing in Canada

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.