Canadian ecommerce spending is forecasted to reach USD 42 billion by 2018 and globally this figure is expected to hit USD 27 trillion by 2020.
PayPal’s study indicates that Canadian SMBs are not the power of ecommerce to sell where their customers are shopping – 80% of Canadians shopped online in 2015 – and it shows up on their bottom line. Businesses that accept online payments as a complement to their offline revenue stream reported an average revenue of USD 175,000, which is more than double businesses that operate without online payment capabilities (USD 80,000). Businesses that only accept payments online reported an average revenue of USD 150,000.
The study also shows that 83% of Canadian SMBs do not accept any form of online or mobile payment and 71% of this group said they would never consider selling online.
Only 7% of the Canadian SMBs surveyed have a website capable of processing online payments and 34% of businesses that do not currently accept online payments have no foreseeable plans to build a website at all.
Canadian SMBs that do not currently sell online report several concerns that keep them from doing so. Chief among them is concern about providing the same level of service (30%), followed by online fraud (21%), limited understanding of technology (19%), and distribution or delivery issues (19%). Nearly three quarters (72%) of offline businesses claimed that they are not particularly sophisticated in terms of technology and e-marketing knowledge.
The majority (67%) of Canadian SMBs owners are men and 63% are 55 years of age or older. However, these numbers shift when looking at ecommerce enabled businesses – 77% of SMB owners that accept payments through online and offline channels and 66% of businesses that only accept online payments are under 55 years of age.
Multi-channel businesses are the youngest group, with a median age of 44. There is also a significant under representation of women SMB owners. Only one third (33%) of Canadian SMBs are owned by women, and this is consistent across businesses that sell online and those that do not.
Findings are based on a PayPal-commissioned study which was led, designed and managed by Barraza & Associates, with execution and reporting by Northstar Research Partners. This study was conducted between December 10th, 2015, and January 10th 2016, on behalf of PayPal. For this survey, a sample of 1,000 Canadian SMBs owners were interviewed online.
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