Thirty-four percent of Canadian online shoppers likely to shop online at American retailers to take advantage of Black Friday, Cyber Monday's deep discounts, finds Visa Canada survey

Cindy Allen

TORONTO , November 22, 2011 (Visa Canada) – As the holiday shopping season kicks off south of the border next weekend, Canadians will be hunting for cross-border shopping deals. According to a recent survey conducted by Ipsos Reid on behalf of Visa Canada, more than one third (34 per cent) of Canadian online shoppers say they are likely to shop online at American retailers to take advantage of deep discounts offered on Black Friday and Cyber Monday - the days following American Thanksgiving - an increase of six per cent from last year.

In addition, survey results reveal that 30 per cent of Canadian online shoppers are planning to spend more online this year than last. On average, Canadians expect to spend $262 online, up from $242 in 2010. Male shoppers will be the bigger spenders at $272, with women slightly behind at $253. Atlantic Canadians ($315) and Ontarians ($274) are the regions with the highest expected online spend.

Clothing and accessories (58 per cent) are the most popular online purchases for Black Friday and Cyber Monday shoppers, followed by books (51 per cent) and movies and music (40 per cent). In line with trends towards more technology-focused gifting, computers, tablets, and computer-related electronics are the online items on which shoppers intend to spend the most money, followed by other electronics including TVs, DVD players, music players and video game consoles.

"Over the past few years we have seen a steady increase in the number of Canadians who look for deals south of the border on Black Friday and Cyber Monday," said Stephanie Wallat, Business Leader, Ecommerce, Visa Canada. "Canadians who make cross-border purchases with their Visa credit, debit or prepaid card can be confident shopping online knowing they're protected by Visa's multiple layers of security."

Wallat also pointed out that there are a number of special offers available to Visa cardholders from American retailers that Canadians can take advantage of by visiting Visaperks.ca.

The survey also found that eight-in-ten (82 per cent) online shoppers say that the ability to ship purchases hassle-free would increase their likelihood of shopping at American web sites - with British Columbians and Albertans being especially adamant (both 89 per cent). A large number (79 per cent) of online shoppers also said that knowing the full cost including shipping, customs and taxes before check-out would increase the likelihood that they would make an online cross-border purchase.

U.S. retailers are clearly listening as more are now shipping to Canada and abroad. And for those must-have items from U.S. sites, Visa has partnered with Borderlinx, an e-commerce solutions company allowing Canadians to shop at any retailer in the U.S. and have their purchases shipped across the border. Borderlinx also provides a simple calculator that estimates the entire cost of the purchase, including taxes, duties, currency conversation and shipping, before it is final. Purchases from separate web sites can be consolidated by Borderlinx into one shipment for delivery to Canada for convenience and additional savings. Visa cardholders can sign up for the service at no charge by visiting www.borderlinx.com/visa/ca.

About Visa

Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital currency. Underpinning digital currency is one of the world's most advanced processing networks-VisaNet-that is capable of handling more than 20,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products. For more information, visit www.corporate.visa.com.

About Borderlinx

Borderlinx is the industry leader in global cross-border ecommerce. Delivering to consumers across the world, Borderlinx's innovative eCommerce management solutions enable U.S. and UK e-tailers to sell online to a global marketplace, while allowing consumers to access the best quality products at the best possible prices. Established by experts in ecommerce, multi-channel marketing, international trade and logistics management, Borderlinx has partnerships with many of the world's leading companies. Borderlinx is an international company headquarted in Europe, with offices in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. For further information visit: www.borderlinx.com For more information contact: Abigail Harrison, thebluedoor, +44 (0) 1252 899969, aharrison@thebluedoor.com

About the Ipsos Reid survey

The Ipsos Reid poll was conducted between October 26 and October 28, on behalf of Visa Canada. For this survey, a national sample of 1,175 adults (54 per cent of whom had an online purchase for either a Canadian or American online retailer in the past twelve months) conducted as part of Ipsos Reid's regular online omnibus poll. For the base sample group (n=1,175), an unweighted probability sample, with 100% response rate, would have an estimated margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. For the sub-group of online shoppers (n=651), the margin of error would be plus or minus 4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The margin of error for any other subgroups would be larger.

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