For U.S. businesses in search of new growth opportunities, America’s northern neighbor presents a wealth of untapped potential. While Canada has long been a place of opportunity for U.S.-based businesses, B2B and B2C e-commerce opportunities are increasingly becoming more favorable.
For one, Canada was not as hard hit by the global economic crisis as the U.S. was, and post-recession growth has been easier to sustain with a stronger Canadian dollar and a relatively robust economy. Additionally, U.S. businesses are flocking to Canada because there are fewer businesses already entrenched in the market so the competition is not as fierce. At the same time, entering the Canadian market can make for an easy transition based on a shared language and a pre-existing familiarity of American brands from cross-border shopping and advertising.
American e-commerce businesses in particular are finding Canada to be an attractive opportunity, as Canadians actually visit more webpages than Americans and spend nearly as much time on the web overall. Although Canadians shop less online than their American counterparts, this lower incidence may be due to the fact that Canadians have fewer online choices. But this may not last much longer, with more online players opening warehouses and distribution centers in Canada and Canadian B2C e-commerce sales growth rates now outpacing the U.S.
Hanover Research recently conducted research to analyze the latest e-commerce trends in Canada, and we took key findings to design the below infographic.
