More Canadians will turn to the Internet for presents this holiday season, according to a report from Solutions Research Group.
Based on 1,000 interviews with Canadians, the report found that 65 percent of Canadians have bought something online or via their mobile phones in the past month, up from 60 percent last year.
And that could mean more business for P&D couriers around the holiday season. In fact, UPS said in September that they plan to hire another 90,000 to 95,000 seasonal employees to support the anticipated holiday surge in package deliveries that will begin in October and continue through January 2015.
And 67 percent of Canadians said they plan on buying at least some of their holiday gifts online and 21 percent said they plan to buy more online this year compared to last year.
According to the research, the percentage of those who will only buy from brick and mortar stores is down to 33 percent from 38 percent last year.
Amazon is the top e-tailer in Canada, according to the report, followed by eBay, Walmart, Chapters Inidigo and Best Buy.
At its annual meeting for the investment community, Walmart projected total capital spending for fiscal 2016 to range between $11.6 billion and $12.9 billion, including about $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion for e-commerce and digital initiatives.
"Our business and customers continue to evolve and so will the way we deploy capital," said Charles Holley, Walmart's EVP and CFO. "We will invest more heavily in e-commerce initiatives, while temporarily moderating our global physical growth, particularly larger stores. We are focused on creating an endless aisle and appealing to our customers’ changing needs."
Continued Holley: "Globally, we expect to finish this year with approximately $12.5 billion in e-commerce sales. Looking forward, we expect an increase in global e-commerce sales of around 25 percent in fiscal year 2016, and we anticipate growth over the three-year period from fiscal years 2016 through 2018 to average 30 percent to 40 percent."
