The improvement in local online shopping will only last for the duration of the pandemic. The share of Quebec merchants on the web, which had reached 26% in dollars spent in 2022, fell to 15% in 2023, reveals the NETendances survey on electronic commerce unveiled on Wednesday.
Amazon is more dominant than ever, with a 51% share of the pie, four percentage points more than the previous year; 16% of online dollars went to other Canadian merchants, 18% to overseas sites. The 15% share obtained by Quebec sites is the lowest since the NETendances report calculated this criterion, i.e. since 2020.
“The enthusiasm for local purchasing is running out of steam in Quebec,” we can read in the report based on a survey of 1,087 adults. Some 300 Quebec entrepreneurs saw this slowdown in local purchasing coming. In May 2022, they signed an open letter in which they affirmed that local purchasing was in danger. »
The only downside for Amazon is that the popularity of its Prime subscription program is declining. If 39% of Quebec adults said they were subscribers in 2022, this rate increased to 32% last year.
In total in 2023, Quebecers spent $17.8 billion online, an increase of 8.8% year-on-year; 74% of Quebec adults report having personally made an online purchase, for an average annual amount of $1,139.
In 2020, this amount was $1,048. These purchases also include mobile applications and subscriptions to online services like Netflix.
Men are slightly more likely to purchase online, with 77% saying they have done so compared to 71% of women. In terms of age, 25-34 year olds and 18-24 year olds are the most convinced online buyers, with respective rates of 89% and 87%.
Marketplace in the lead
Credit card, used by 76% of respondents, is the most popular payment option, followed by PayPal, at 33%. We note that the payment solutions promoted by phone manufacturers remain marginal: Apple Pay was used by 10% of online buyers, Google Pay by 6% and Samsung Pay by 2%.
Additionally, 30% of spending on clothing, shoes and accessories was made online, compared to 12% for groceries and 11% for drugstore products.
The NETendances 2023 report also focuses on purchases and sales of second-hand or used products. Thus, 44% of adults who use e-commerce say they have made such a purchase, a drop of 12 percentage points compared to 2022. And 43% were sellers, a drop of 6 points.
The most popular platform is Marketplace on Facebook, used by 73% of buyers or sellers. Kijiji comes in second with 33%, followed by eBay at 11%.