More Canadians were letting their mouse do the walking this past holiday season than ever before. More than 3.5 adults bought at least one gift online during the 2004 holiday season compared to 2.2 million in 2003 according to the most recent Canadian Inter@ctive Reid Report.
In the U.S., online shopping experienced a much smaller increase – 29%.
Ipsos-Reid also found that 56% of adults with Internet access have made a purchase online, compared to 47% in 2003 and 39% in 2002.
Canadians spent an average of $228 online, down slightly from the typical purchase of $247 in 2003 and $267 in 2002, although the decrease in average spend is more than compensated by the increase in the number of people shopping online.
The most popular purchases were clothes (29%), books (28%), and DVDs or movies (25%).
Most of those surveyed, 77%, said they would likely make online purchases again while only 2% said they likely would not.
The Canadian Inter@ctive Reid Report is part of a quarterly survey of Internet trends in Canada conducted via an online panel of 1,000 and a further 1,000 telephone interviews.
