PayPal Study Reveals Less than One in Five Canadian SMBs Accept Online Payments

Canadian e-commerce spending is forecasted to reach $42 billion by 2018 and globally this figure is expected to hit $27 trillion by 2020.

But according to an in-depth study commissioned by PayPal Canada, less than only one in five (17%) Canadian small businesses are using payment tools such as electronic invoicing, an online marketplace, or an e-commerce enabled website.

PayPal’s new Canadian SMB Landscape Study indicates that Canadian small businesses are not harnessing the power of e-commerce to sell where their customers are shopping and it shows up on their bottom line.

Businesses that accept online payments as a complement to their offline revenue stream reported an average revenue of $175,000, which is more than double businesses that operate without online payment capabilities ($80,000). Businesses that only accept payments online reported an average revenue of $150,000.

But what’s holding e-commerce back in Canada?

Canadian SMBs that do not currently sell online report several concerns that keep them from doing so. Chief among them is concern about providing the same level of service (30%), followed by online fraud (21%), limited understanding of technology (19%), and distribution or delivery issues (19%).

The geographic distribution of Canadian SMB across Canada is fairly even, according to study findings.

The majority (67%) of Canadian small business owners are men and 63 per cent are 55 years of age or older.

However, these numbers shift dramatically when looking at e-commerce enabled businesses – 77 per cent of SMB owners that accept payments through online and offline channels and 66 per cent of businesses that only accept online payments are under 55 years of age.

Multi-channel businesses are the youngest group, with a median age of 44.