More than half of Canadians buy from U.S. e-retailers

Online Canadians spend an average of $454 per year shopping on the web and 62% of them are buying from U.S. e-retailers, according to a recently released report from Visa Inc. called “E-Commerce Cross-Border Handbook for U.S. Retailers.”

“The Canadian e-commerce market has many attractive characteristics, but also many challenges. The net result is vast aggregate potential, with forecasts of above-average growth for many years to come,” the report says. According to the report, 28.5 million potential customers age 15 and older reside in Canada.

Among the findings:

• Among online shoppers, 82% don’t want to pay extra shipping charges for shipping across the border
• 75% are concerned about not having an accurate total cost when ordering from U.S. e-retailers
• 72% believe U.S. sites offer a wider selection
• 82% buy from Canadian e-retailing sites; 19% buy from sites beyond the U.S. and Canada
• Among all tracked buying categories, consumer electronics and music/DVDs/videos are seeing the largest percentage gains for online purchases; each grew by 5% between 2006 and 2007, the latest data available.