What Risk? More Canadians Shopping Online

Bought anything online using your credit card lately? You're not alone. Statistics show that Canadians are more comfortable using their credit cards online these days. The numbers aren't small either. Compared to 2007 numbers, orders jumped $2.3 billion to reach $15.1 billion in 2009.

Where books and magazines used to dominate, clothing and jewelry, toys, games, gifts and music – items which better reflect our offline shopping interests – all rose in the two years since Statistics Canada last examined our online shopping habits.

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Another sign of our growing comfort with online purchases could be found in order sizes: Average value per order declined from $183 in 2007 to $158 in 2009. This might seem counter-intuitive: doesn't this mean we're shopping less online? Not really. What it could suggest is that more people are becoming more comfortable with using their personal and credit card information for smaller and smaller purchases.

Although there are still concerns about online credit card use (with 48 per cent saying they were very concerned about online credit card use), the vast majority of online shoppers still paid directly over the internet for some or all of their purchases.

As familiarity with the internet grows, however, so do comfort levels. The level of concern was higher (61 per cent) for those who never used the internet, dropping to 57 per cent among those who reported using the internet for less than five years and even lower to 42 per cent for those who say they've been online for five years or more.

(In 2009, 80 per cent of users said they had five or more years of experience in using the internet, up significantly from 73 per cent in 2007. Half of these users made an online purchase in 2009. Only 23 per cent of those who'd been online for less than five years made a purchase during the year.)

Breaking it down by age group, more than one-half of those over 44 reported placing an order for travel services while 43 per cent of those under age 25 tended to buy clothing, jewelry and accessories.

Overall, about 39 per cent of Canadians over 16 used the internet to place more than 95 million orders, up from 70 million orders in 2007. Those who spent the most dropped an average of $4,210 during the year. Orders from these "top shoppers" (nearly half of all orders placed), were worth over three quarters (79 per cent) of the total value spent across the country.


Kate McCaffery is a freelance writer in Toronto, Ontario. Visit mccaffery.ca/kate2.0/ for more information.