This Holiday Season, a Nationwide Plan to Shop Local—Even Online

November 24, 2016

A buy-local mentality is sweeping across Canada with 73% of online shoppers planning to buy holiday gifts online from Canadian retailers instead of buying from US or international website, according to a study from PayPal and Ipsos.

Of those people, 43 per cent are planning to buy more gifts from Canadian retailers than they did last year.

“Canadian retailers are embracing e-commerce more than ever before and offering greater choice to consumers who want to shop online this side of the border,” said Kerry Reynolds, head of consumer marketing at PayPal Canada. “Canadian-sold goods are in demand and the Canadian economy stands to benefit immensely from this trend.”

Shopping local is now officially in vogue. The research reveals that this trend is driven by a multitude of factors with more than half (56%) of Canadians revealing that they plan to shop online from Canadian retailers because they want to support local businesses and the economy. Canadians are also choosing to shop online from domestic retailers because they want to avoid the cost of international shipping, taxes and duties (51%) and unfavorable exchange rates (44%).

PayPal’s research revealed that Canadian online shoppers are warming up to “social commerce,” which is defined as buying directly from an advertisement on a social media platform. One in four (26%) Canadian online shoppers have already engaged in social commerce and half (54%) say they would consider it.

Canadians are the one of the most plugged-in social media users in the world, spending an average of two hours and 19 minutes on social media platforms everyday.

Recommendations from friends and family have a greater influence on buying behavior than social media ads or celebrity endorsements, however. The study revealed that 34% of Canadian online shoppers said they would consider buying an item directly from a brand’s advertisement on a social media platform if recommended by a peer.