Canadian E-Commerce Alive and Well?

Now, this is interesting: eMarketer has a story that e-commerce in Canada is thriving. According to Statistics Canada, e-commerce sales (public and private sectors) were $39.1-billion in 2005 compared with $28.3-billion in 2004. As well, the number of Canadian retailers with a Web site climbed to 42% from 38%. I'm not sure how StatsCan formulated their numbers but it would be interesting to see how Canadian consumers are spending their money online. Anecdotally, Canadians aren't the most enthusiastic online consumers. Part of the problem is the a chicken-and-egg situation. Canadians don't shop online so retailers are leery about setting up e-commerce sites, and because there's a lack of e-commerce sites because Canadians are reluctant to shop…and so it goes around and around. It is interesting that Canadian Tire operates one of the most popular retail sites but it is mostly used by consumers are a research tool. As a result, it is difficult to measure the site's success in terms of dollars and cents given many people will do their shopping at a retail outlet.