With 12 million US customer accounts and 5.1 million unique visitors (according to Nielsen)to its American site monthly, Buy.com has brought its big reach north with a new Canadian website.

Part of a global expansion of its online marketplace e-commerce sites, the site, launched this week, will soon be supported by a cross-platform media buy in Canada including TV spots featuring Howie Mandel, online ads, affiliates and search engine marketing. Buy.com is also an official partner of EBay and will sell its goods through EBay.ca.

Although specific details on the advertising opportunities available were not available as of press time, Jeff Wisot, VP marketing at Buy.com, told MiC that all opportunities will be custom-made for each advertiser.

‘We offer high-impact sponsorship opportunities to reach our educated, savvy and influential shoppers throughout their entire purchase consideration cycle,’ he says.

Buy.com decided upon the expansion after realizing that many of its EBay buyers were from Canada, says Wisot, and the company saw an opportunity to reach the market directly. The site will focus on electronics products and gradually expand to include more product categories in the future.