Online purchasing trends in different countries

Cannada
Canadians ordered $15.1 billion in goods and services on the internet last year, up from $12.8 billion in 2009.Statistics Canada attributed the increase to a rise in the number of online shoppers and a higher volume of orders. The agency said 39 per cent of Canadians aged 16 and over used the internet to place more than 95 million orders in 2011 up from 32 per cent and 70 million orders in 2009, when the survey was last conducted. Relatively more residents of British Columbia (47 per cent) and Alberta (45 per cent) made online orders in 2011. About half of Canadians aged 16 to 34 purchased a product online in 2011, with men of any age (42 per cent) more likely than women (37 per cent) to have made an online purchase. Average value per order declined from $183 in 2009 to $158 in 2011.The top 25 per cent of online shoppers spent an average of $4,210 on Internet purchases during 2011, accounting for almost half of total orders and more than three-quarters of their value. The most common types of online orders continued to be travel services; entertainment products such as concert tickets; books and magazines; and clothing, jewelry and accessories. The survey found 52 per cent of Canadians went online to "window shop" to research or browse products up from 43 per cent in 2007.Among all window shoppers, 69 per cent reported subsequently making a purchase directly from a store, up from 64 per cent in 2009.

China
In 2010, China's online shopping industry had a turnover of $80bn, and grew 87% yearon-year. Chinas 420 million Internet users spend around a billion hours each day online and last year, 185 million made at least one online purchase. According to Boston Consulting Group, the volume is expected to increase fourfold by 2015. Online shopping now accounts for more than 5% of China's retail sales, E-commerce is changing the way Chinese consumers think about shopping: online, it is more social than a hard sell. It's a new engaging experience to savors. In Chinese retail, trust is a rare commodity. There are plenty of fakes online, and scams or shoddy goods often curse buyers.Still, consumer faith in e-commerce stores is remarkably robust. Thats because, apart from its convenience, online shopping has shifted the balance of power from sellers to buyers Online shopping in China is more than clicking on the "buy" button. The experience includes exchanging tips with other shoppers, discussing trends, and rating both products and service. The interaction and communication generates trust. "The ability of social networking combined with e-commerce or social commerce, where people are able to rate their providers, provide information to other purchasers - that level of experience is really overcoming the big weaknesses," says Duncan Clark, Chairman of BDA (China), an expert on China's e-commerce industry. "Basically, there is a one-to-one connection being established. And that's breaking through the mistrust barrier if you will. So I think we can learn, actually - the West can learn from some of the developments happening in the Chinese e-commerce sector," says. In China, the competition is about focusing on how to put the technology to work. This often means duplicating or tweaking existing ideas to get an edge in the market, cheaply and quickly.

In this rapidly expanding, huge market of 600 cities, much of the focus now is on finance and management, and on solving the puzzle of how to deliver a fast reliable service to the regions far away from the eastern seaboard - and then grow market share. Manufacturers in China are typically local businesses. And their distribution capacity is restricted to a very small region. But it requires suppliers to deliver to our distribution centers throughout the country - so that we can ship to every single customer in the whole of China. And that is a real challenge for suppliers." Another Amazon-styled mass market retailer, 360.buy, raised $1.5bn in April during a funding round - on top of a $500m investment round last December, that saw US retail giant Wal-Mart taking a stake.

United kingdom
The survey says the average British consumer devotes 2.4 hours per week to shopping online compared with 1.2 hours per week shopping in stores yet that consumers spend more in stores than online. The British consumer spends an average of 126 pounds ($198) per month in stores compared with 116 pounds ($182) spent online; thats a total of 242 pounds ($380). Women spend an average of 212 pounds ($333) monthly for retail goods, with that total split very nearly in half between online and store retailers: 49.5% is spent online and 50.5% in stores. Men, meanwhile, spend more of their retail budgets in stores (53.0%) versus online (47.0%). Men also spend more overall at retail each month, an average of 273 pounds ($429). Online shopping draws heavy interest from consumers age 55 and older, 86% of whom say they shop online regularly. More than a third (36%) of consumers in this age group say they do the majority of their retail shopping online. 59.2% of consumers age 55 and older cite the ability to have online orders delivered to their homes as a prime motivation for shopping online because it saves them from having to carry products home from stores. across all age groups online shopping is preferred in Britain. British consumers across all age groups say they shop online because it is convenient and because they get better deals online.

South Africa Increasing of Internet penetration in South Africa have also contributed to the development of e-commerce activities South Africans are progressively becoming more familiar and feeling more positive towards online shopping. The higher frequency and larger amounts of virtual transactions in South Africas cyberspace, even when the economy has not been at its best, have been facilitated by a variety of factors that include the expansion of local Internet usage, the proliferation of cell/smart phones, an enabling legal framework and different enhancements in the Internet-based payment methods and in the web-based commercial experience. In this context, it has not been difficult for South African consumers to increasingly trust, understand and engage in e-commerce activities. In general, South Africas e-commerce activity is regulated by the Electronic Communications and Transactions (ECT) Act of 2002 and by the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) of 2010. These norms have legalized and facilitated computer-based communications, transactions and activities in the country, while also promoting a fair, secure and protected environment for consumers and suppliers to interact and trade. Evidently, the existence of and compliance with clear and rigorous rules have provided online agents with much needed assurance and security to operate electronically and to perform all types of Internet transactions. South African research company World Wide there was a a 15% increase in local accessibility to the Internet throughout 2009 to reach 5.3mn users by the end of that year. They calculated a similar growth rate for the following year, resulting in close to 6mn Internet users by the end of 2010. The report also estimated the countrys online shopping amount to reach ZAR 2bn by the end of the year 2010. In terms of trends, a survey conducted by MasterCard Worldwide between September and October of 2010 in which 8,500 consumers participated revealed that South Africans accessing the Internet, do so mostly to check their email (95%), to browse

information/study material (74%), to control their bank balance (73%) and to browse for leisure (73%). 51% of South Africans who have access to the Internet are shopping online and 75% of those confirmed having done so in the previous three months. The MasterCard study also showed that 89% of South Africas online shoppers are satisfied with their virtual shopping experience, and that 73% of respondents intended, at the time, to make computer-based purchases over the next six months. South Africans favoring online shopping find the experience more convenient, user-friendly and easier than physically going to the shop or ordering something using a catalogue or through a call center. Also 54% of South Africas online shoppers tend to conduct research before their Internet-based purchases either by surfing the web or by compiling references from friends and family. The survey performed by MasterCard also established that the preferred products of South Africas online shoppers are CDs and DVDs, at the top of the list with 50%, followed by books and art, with 45%. Then come airline tickets, shows/movie tickets, and home and electric appliances. A previous survey by Synovate ranked music and movie downloads at the top of South Africas online shopping list, as these products are easy to access and provide instant gratification Regarding payment methods used for online shopping, MasterCards report revealed that South Africans prefer credit cards (48%) and, to a lesser extent, debit cards (29%). Other online payment options include the internationally known PayPal system that allows for convenient and quick money transfers/payments in a secure environment. The advances in South Africas online shopping are far from over. Despite the high poverty levels of an important section of the population, many of the 43mn South Africans that currently do not have Internet connection should be able to profit from the web experience in the coming years. The popularization of e-commerce will require different types of retail stores and well known supermarket chains to introduce and sell their products through the Internet, ensuring that the offering is wide, convenient and competitive prices.

United States A survey has found that more than half the U.S. population is now connected to the Internet. In addition, 39 percent of Internet users are making purchases online. And sonline shopping will continue to grow, as consumers get more comfortable with the Internet. "Once somebody's online, it typically seems to take them a year-and-a-half to two years to make the move to buy online," Schehr told the E-Commerce Times. "It's still not something that people do regularly maybe once or twice a quarter, on average."

According to the study, online shopping is especially popular among Web users age 25 to 44. More than half 53 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds use the Internet to make purchases, and 51.2 percent of 35- to 44-year-olds are Web buyers. Another unsurprising finding was that those who have more spend more. Among individuals making more than US$75,000 a year, 49.1 percent made purchases online, compared with just 26.1 percent of those with an annual income of less than $15,000.But lower-income households are adopting the Internet more quickly than their richer counterparts, the study found. In addition to online shopping, Web banking is on the rise. In September 21 percent of the total U.S. population not just Web users made online purchases, and 8.1 percent banked online, up from 14 percent combined in the previous study. Men were more willing to trust the Web for money matters than women were 12.6 of male Internet users traded online, and 19.3 percent banked on the Web. Just 5.3 percent of wired women traded, and 16.5 percent banked. "To the extent that product/service purchases, online trading and online banking represent consumers engaged in e-commerce, that activity is fairly strong and growing in united states.