Web retailing gains market muscle as concerns fade
Record season: Increasing number of sites catering for Canadian dollars
By DAVID AKIN
The Financial Post
Many online vendors are reporting record sales this Christmas season. While the numbers posted by the retailers still pale in comparison with their real-world cousins, they are starting to acquire some heft.
America Online Inc., for instance, recently reported more than 750,000 of its 13 million members shopped online for the first time this Christmas. AOL, which runs its own shopping areas, said the average online shopping trip results in the purchase of two items at an average cost per order of $54 (US).
Still, as one analyst at Zona Research Inc. trenchantly noted in a recent bulletin issued by the Redwood City, Calif., consultancy: "Computer ownership has jumped. Concerns about online security have diminished. Online shopping has moved much more to the mainstream. Year to year comparisons are, however, largely meaningless, as Internet time has made a 12-month period near an eternity. Month-to-month comparisons can be a little tricky as well, especially as we enter the Christmas shopping season. While no doubt absolute shopping spending is up, we also suspect online merchants want to beat the drum as loudly as they can this holiday season, in effect telling the offline shopper that they are practically the last person on the planet not to buy via the World Wide Web."
If that kind of sinking feeling is gnawing at you, here's a sampling of Web sites where you can point-and-click your way to an empty bank account.
The sites have been selected largely at random and are not a sample of the best or most popular. We've skipped Amazon.com (www.amazon.com), for instance and left out eBay (www.ebay.com) for the simple reason both those sites have already generated plenty of ink. Besides, neither accepts payment in loonies.
Loonies, however, are the preferred currency at an increasing number of sites. As Canadian catalogue shoppers know, the exchange rate often makes purchases from U.S. retailers prohibitively expensive. Online shoppers in Canada need to have a good currency calculator handy. You can find one, incidentally, at the Bank of Canada site (www.bank-banque-canada. ca/english/exchform.htm).
Bid.com International Inc. of Toronto is a site (www.bid.com) that goes both ways as far as currencies go. It is an online auction site where consumers can bid on a variety of brand name merchandise. Auctions can last a few hours or a few days. Bid.com notifies participants by e-mail of the outcome.
It also has a neat feature called a Bid Buddy, an automated software agent that will place bids on your behalf even though you're offline. It won't go higher than your maximum bid but will bid enough to keep you on top of the auction.
Jeans maker Levi Strauss and Co. headquarters are in San Francisco, but it runs a Canada-only site (www.levistraussdirect.ca) where you can buy its clothing in Canadian dollars.
The currency of exchange is the most important consideration for online shoppers, but a close second is shipping costs, which can add significantly to the final bill. Most online shopping sites should have a section that clearly explains the method of shipment, its cost, and expected time of delivery. Many U.S. sites, for example, do not offer surface delivery to Canadian addresses, which means Canadians have to pay for more expensive air delivery (in U.S. dollars, of course).
Recognizing that shipping costs can sour the online experience, many Canadian retailers are waiving them to entice shoppers.
Two recently launched online book-selling initiatives are waiving Canadian shipping fees. Indigo (www.indigo.ca) and Chapters Inc. (www.chaptersglobe.com) are striving to repatriate some of the online business scooped up by Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble (www.barnesandnoble.com).
Canada's mainstream retailers are also on the Net offering a blend of services and information with some limited online shopping opportunities.
Experts say Zellers (www.zellers.com), Sears (www.sears.ca), and Eaton's (www.eatons.ca) will be able to leverage the power of their brand name recognition in cyberspace, and that may be true. But half the fun of shopping online is finding quirky, odd, or flavourful stuff not widely available.
At the online version of the Bowling Supply House of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., (www. bowlingsupplyhouse.ca) for instance, you can buy a top-of-the-line $300 10-pin bowling ball and other brand name bowling paraphernalia.
Gaia Ultimate Sports sells gear and other products for devotees of Ultimate, the odd name for an activity that's best described as football with frisbees. Until it went online this year, Gaia's gear was available only through three sporting goods' stores in Vancouver and Ottawa. Now, the whole world can buy it. The site (www.gaia-ultimate.com) is well-designed, easy to navigate, and tries to build a relationship with the consumer beyond the obvious commercial one.
One of the frustrating things for Canadian online shoppers is that many popular U.S. sites won't ship to Canada. You may have heard about the great stuff at EToys (www.etoys.com) or Garden.com (www.garden.com), but they won't send anything if you live in Flin Flon, Man., or Fredericton.
You can get toys from a Canadian retailer online through Zellers Zeddy's site (www.hbc. com/zeddy/home.asp), where it reports it's doing a brisk business.
For something unique in the toy department, you might try Toad Hall Toys of Winnipeg (www.toadhalltoys.com).
Winnipeg, incidentally, has a thriving core of merchants that have been busy taking their businesses to the Web.
T&T Seeds, for instance, was opened in Winnipeg's exchange district in 1935 by Jerry and Paddy Twomey. It's been in the mail-order business for 53 years and is now selling online to gardeners (www.ttseeds. mb.ca). That kind of pedigree should make online shoppers who are nervous about the security of their credit cards, or the quality of their merchandise, feel better.
At Marantz and Sons, also in Winnipeg, they've been making luxury fur hats for retailers and lodges for more than 50 years. It, too, has taken to the Web with a smartly organized site (www.marantzandsons.com) selling rabbit fur-lined bomber hats and black muskrat Russian hats. This site, though, doesn't provide enough information about the firm. It may be familiar to Winnipeggers, but it's new to folks in Halifax and Prince George, B.C.
Again, first-time online shoppers are likely to feel more comfortable with a retailer that provides detailed information about its operation.
Consumers will find plenty of regional flavour shopping online.
For Pacific Northwest artifacts, try House of Himwitsa Native Art Gallery of Tofino, B.C. Its Web site (www.vancouver-island-bc.com/tofino/himwitsa/index.html) provides consumers the chance to buy carvings, clothing, and jewellery created in the tradition of Pacific Northwest tribes.
At the other end of the country, Newfoundland Treasures (www.avalon.nf.ca/~ceciliaw/) is serving up merchandise native to the Rock. You can buy music by Ron Hynes, writing from Ray Guy, and Purity brand food products, a fixture in Newfoundland kitchens.
Both the House of Himwitsa and Newfoundland Treasures sites, though, feel like first efforts at e-commerce, largely because of clumsy ordering processes.
At more sophisticated sites, online shoppers click on items they want to purchase, which are added to an electronic shopping basket. At the end of the session, you head to a virtual checkout counter where you can review the contents of the shopping basket, adding or discarding as you wish, and arrange to pay. Most sites will present a total at checkout that includes taxes and shipping.
A more elegant site for Purity Hard Bread and other Newfoundland products might be Tide's Point Marketplace (www. tidespoint.com).
Canadiana is also available at the sites of cultural institutions. The shop at the Museum of Civilization in Hull, Que., offers items inspired by its permanent and touring collections. Order a Chilkat blanket, for example, at the museum's Cyberboutique (cyberboutique.civilisations.ca/Boutique/english/index.html). For a version of Canadiana more in keeping with the image we're best known for abroad, try the online edition of the Hudson's Bay Co. Outfitters Online Store (shop.hbc.com/outfitters) for candlestick holders, backpacks, cold weather clothing, and other stuff that trades on our heritage as a rugged, outdoorsy people.
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