Panel data provided by Madison's Canadian Lumber Reporter.

E-Commerce Growing faster than Regular Retail Sales

By 250 News

Statistics Canada says  the increase in online sales was six times the rise in overall retail sales in Canada in 2005. E- Commerce sales in Canada rose by 38% or more  in 2005.

The stats released today show, combined private and public sector online sales, increased 38.4% to $39.2 billion. 
Online sales by private firms increased 37.2% to $36.3 billion, while those by the public sector increased 55.4% to $2.9 billion. 

It is the fourth straight year that the overall value of . Large firms, those with over 100 employees, continue to make up the majority of online sales, accounting for 62% of total online sales. In addition, 16% of large firms sell online, compared to only 7% of private firms overall.

For the third consecutive year, four sectors led the way in terms of value of online sales: wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, and manufacturing. In total, these four sectors were responsible for e-commerce valued at $24.7 billion, up 38% from 2004. 

Stats Canada says there were two major factors identified as barriers to conducting sales over the Internet.
-organizations believe their products do not lend themselves to Internet transactions
-organizations didn't want to make the change in the way they do business, saying they aren't prepared to deal with possible technical headaches and see no reason to change from a model that is already in place.

More retail companies have web sites with 42% had a Web site  in 2005, up from 38% in 2004  


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