Over 30% of Canadians to shop with US e-retailers over Thanksgiving weekend

An increasing number of Canadian consumers plan to buy items online from US retailers over theupcoming Thanksgiving weekend during the last week of November but many people still prefer to “buy

Conducted by Leger, the largest Canadian-owned polling, research and strategic marketing firm,UPS Canada’s annual Black Friday survey revealed that over a third (32%) of Canadians intend toshop for Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on US e-retail websites. This represents an increaseof 33%, up from 24% in 2013, and almost triples the 2011 figure when only 13% wanted to profit fromUS online shopping deals.

However, the respondents claimed that the arrival of US retailers north of the Canadian borderhas not impacted on traditional cross-border shopping, with the number of Canadians travelling tothe USA for shopping expected to triple to 20% in 2014, compared to 6% in 2011.

The survey highlighted the increasing competition from Canadian retailers both online andin-store, with 26% of the respondents pointing to Canadian retailers now offering Black Fridaydeals. The US retailers still compete for their share of the Canadian market as some 44% of thoserespondents who are unlikely to make purchases from the USA prefer to shop online from domesticretailers. This preference was significantly lower in Quebec than the rest of Canada (29% vs.48%).

“The growth in e-commerce innovations and product offerings south of the border is stillenticing a lot of Canadian shoppers, but Canadian retailers are starting to pick up the pace asseen through the ubiquity of online deals during the US Thanksgiving weekend as well as the strongdesire among Canadians to buy Canadian,” Jim Bena, vice president of marketing, UPS Canada, said.“We’re seeing this first-hand in our advisory capacity working with Canadian businesses,particularly with small- and medium-sized businesses, of which 80% of those we recently surveyedare involved in e-commerce and as such are experiencing exponential growth in their bottomlines.”

The survey also found that consumers from Alberta are the most likely to shop online (95%), withthose aged 18-34 rather purchasing items from the USA than any other group.

When shopping online, Canadians consider post-purchase experience and shipping options includingdelivery dates and parcels visibility particularly important. 36% of the respondents value specificdelivery times and 35% – text or e-mail alerts related to the status of their shipments while sameday delivery and convenient pick-up locations are important for 29% and 25% respectively.

These convenient shipping options are now offered through the UPS My Choice application and theUPS Access Points locations where customers can manage their parcel deliveries in an individualway, UPS pointed out.

UPS Canada surveyed 1,537 Canadians online between Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, 2014, using Leger’sonline panel LegerWeb.

UPS expects to deliver 34 million parcels globally on its peak day, December 22. Over the courseof December, the company forecasts a record volume of 585 million packages, an increase of 11% onthe previous year.