Despite high internet use, Canadian consumers have yet to utilise online shopping
Despite widespread internet use, many Canadian consumers are not yet fully utilising ecommerce services, reported the Financial Post.
Wehuns Tan, founder of social shopping aggregator Wishabi, said in an interview with the newspaper that many Canadian small businesses are not optimising their ecommerce websites for consumer ease and convenience, discouraging many would-be shoppers.
"If you ask any retailer, they'll tell you that nine out of 10 of their leads come from online, and then they go in store and then they buy," Tan told the Financial Post. "It's a weird conundrum. Canada has among the highest usage of broadband in the world and the highest [per capita] use of Facebook, the only thing we're lacking in is online shopping."
In fact, Tan believes that Canadian ecommerce services lag behind the U.S. by seven to eight years.
Some of the most common reasons for lack of ecommerce conversions or shopping cart abandonment are not enough transparency in the checkout process, lack of website functionality and inadequate photos of the products, studies have shown.
Canadian small businesses looking to increase their ecommerce conversions may want to consider website redesigns in those areas, experts say.
