Mobile Shopping In Canada Continues To Grow In Popularity

In our last blog, we boldly predicted that during this year’s upcoming holiday season, Canada would experience its biggest online shopping boom ever! Okay, if we’re being honest, we don’t think that the prediction is all that bold. You see, online shopping has been steadily growing in popularity since its inception. And, as we noted in our last blog, Melody McKinnon revealed that last year was our nation’s biggest online holiday shopping year.

Interestingly (and not all that surprisingly), McKinnon had predicted a boost in holiday sales. Just one year prior, she published on article on CanadiansInternet.com that foresaw a significant growth in the amount of shopping that Canadians would do with their smartphones. She notes that both online shopping in general and mobile shopping were expected to experience big-time increases. McKinnon based these predictions on some mobile shopping statistics from 2014.

56% of those Canadians who researched a product using their smartphones, made their purchases the same day. This stat highlights a very important trait about online shopping. It helps for people to make quick buying decisions. People no longer have to physically go into various stores to compare prices. As well, online shopping also helps for consumers to discover the availability of the products they want.

With holiday shopping comes a rush to pick items up quickly because of the possibility of them getting sold out. So when an item can be researched online within seconds – thanks to smartphones – it is likely that that item will be purchased quickly – provided that it is both available and affordable. This fact insists upon Canadian retailers to ensure that their company websites are mobile-friendly.

50% more Canadians used their smartphones to shop in 2014 than they did in 2013. According to McKinnon, 59% of Canadians made purchases using their smartphones in 2014. In other words, people don’t just use their phones to browse. They use them to shop. And when it comes to using their handheld devices, they don’t even need to leave the comforts of their homes in order to do so. 62% will use their smartphones to shop from home, reports McKinnon.

Simply put, it’s incredibly convenient to shop from your smartphone. These pocket-sized devices are carried around by nearly everyone these days. They are one-stop shopping windows – so to speak – into every store you can imagine. Of course, every store that has a mobile-friendly website enjoys the fact that Canadians so frequently browse and shop online using their smartphones. In fact, 48% will have their smartphones in-hand while shopping in their local offline stores, McKinnon reports.

“It is critical that you have e-commerce capabilities on your website,” she insists, “Your site must also be mobile compatible.” At Canadian POS Corporation, we offer a secure e-commerce solution that enables you to easily and securely accept and process all credit cards – Visa, MasterCard, Discover Network, American Express – from your website. For more information, don’t hesitate to give us a call at 1-877-748-2884 or email us at info@localhost.