Shop till you click ‘OK’
Canadians spend more on Internet shopping: StatsCan
KERRI WOLOSZYN STAFF
According to a recent Statistics Canada study, many people will be going to the Internet for gifts this holiday to save time and money, as opposed to the crowded malls and big-box stores. Former University of Manitoba student Kenton Doerkson hopes that some of these Internet shoppers will look to his site for savings.
Doerkson co-founded dealguild. com, a website that hopes to give consumers money back on their purchases. Doerkson explained that “rather than keeping advertising revenue for ourselves, what we’re doing is paying it out to the people making purchases.”
A study by Statistics Canada showed a jump in purchases made by consumers online. In 2005 Canadians spent almost $7.9 billion on the Internet (of the $762 billion total spent on goods and services). This was an increase from the $3 billion spent online in 2003. The most purchased products were those dealing with travel, followed closely by books and other entertainment items.
“We live busy lives and it seems they just keep getting busier. It’s another way we can save time, for one, and we can also save money. People are just getting more comfortable with the Internet,” said Doerkson.
DealGuild tracks money made by users on purchases bought through one of the site’s approved merchants. The site then receives a commission on these purchases and calculates a percentage of that commission to go back to the consumer. Doerkson sees the site, which includes a consumer forum where shoppers can share ideas and deals, as a “co-op.”
The Statistics Canada study reported that people under 49 years of age are ordering more products on the Internet than older consumers, a statistic that fits with Doerkson’s experiences.
Although Doerkson said that DealGuild is aimed at everyone, he noted that most of the site’s users have been around 20 years old. “We’ve grown up with the Internet whereas the generation over us hasn’t, so we’re a little more comfortable with buying things.”
Despite the convenience of shopping at home, many consumers still prefer to do their shopping elsewhere.
U of M marketing professor Subramanian Sivaramakrishnan said that there are four reasons that stop many people from shopping online. “One is the security, the second is not being able to touch and feel the product, the third one is not being able to get real-time customer service and the fourth is not being able to have any human interaction.”
Second-year fine arts student Ruth Thiessen said, “I like to touch things physically before I buy them and so I don’t think that I would believe that it was worth buying if I just saw a photograph of [the product].”
Four out of every five Canadians were worried about the use of credit cards when shopping online, according to Statistics Canada.
Sivaramakrishnan explained that “security is still a concern, definitely, among people, and every now and then you hear about hackers.”
Concerning security issues, Doerkson said, “You have to be carefully optimistic. You don’t go to the guy in the back alley and give him your credit card number in order to buy something, right? But if you’re going to Canadian Tire, pulling out your card, it’s not an issue. You know it’s going to be OK. The same thing is true on the Internet.”
Erik Dalman, a graduate of the U of M, said that he does the majority of his shopping online. “A lot of times certain things aren’t available locally,” he said, and using the Internet to shop is another option. Dalman said that his only bad experience shopping online was unexpected shipping costs.
