
The latest numbers from Statistics Canada were released today and demonstrate just how wide spread Internet use is in Canada. Across the country 80% of people 16 and over used the Internet for personal reasons with BC & Alberta at 85% and Calgary and Saskatoon leading the way with 89% of residents online.
If you break the numbers down by income 94% of households in the top quartile of income (More than $85,000 per year) use the Internet.
96% of users go online from home and of those, 92% have high speed connections. Highspeed access has been shown to be a leading indicator for online shopping and this is reflected in a 5% increase over 2007 for online shopping and pre-shopping (window shopping). A full 50% of home Internet users buy personal goods or services over the Internet and 65% browse and research products.
Online merchants still have to work hard to win over customers who are new to the Internet. 35% of Internet users have been online for less than 5 years and of those 55% are very concerned about online credit card use. Of those online more than 5 years, only 42% were very concerned about credit card use online.
In summary: More people online with faster connections doing more shopping and purchasing. Security concerns continue to be an issue for a large number of Internet users and merchants must overcome this concern and
build trust to increase online sales.
Visit
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/100510/dq100510a-eng.htm for more details.
Tags: high-speed., internet statistics, security, trust