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Category: E-commerce

Search Engine Strategies Toronto 2007 – Day 1 Highlights

Published June 18, 2007

The Search Engine Strategies Toronto conference was held in Toronto, Canada on June 12-13, 2007 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. As always, it was a tightly-run event that was jam-packed with valuable information.

Here are some of the highlights from sessions I attended on Day 1:

Session: The Canadian Search Landscape

  • Canadians conducted 12 billion search engine queries in 2006.
  • Canadians are now conducting an average of 1.4 billion search engine queries per month.
  • 80% of Canadian search queries are for Website content, 18% for images, and the balance are for video content, which is growing fast
  • Depending on whose numbers you want to believe, Google currently has approximately 75-80% of the Canadian search engine query share, with Yahoo! and Microsoft evenly split over the remaining 20-25%. Expect Microsoft’s share to increase as they continue to invest heavily in search.
  • MSN adCenter’s a ‘bargain’ deal for Canadian paid search advertisers because it is still relatively new and there’s less competition.
  • Only a small percentage of advertisers are taking advantage of the Quebec search engine advertising market; lots of great opportunities to get cheap traffic this way.
  • 50% of Canadian search queries are related to finding a product or service.
  • 78% of Canadians will turn to search engines to research a product or service.
  • Martin Byrne from Yahoo! Search Marketing made the interesting observation that companies who have top ranking organic search results convey a "perception of [brand] leadership."
  • Canadian searchers are knowledge seekers not bargain hunters.
  • Canadian searchers are engaged: they are very active, will look at more brands, explore more choices, and like to build and share their expertise.
  • 82% of Canadian businesses with Websites engage in online advertising, but only 36% of them use search engine advertising or search engine optimization.
  • When asked why they weren’t using search engine advertising, the number one reason Canadian businesses cited was "too expensive" … which, of course, is ridiculous.
  • Search engine advertising in Canada is now as large as the entire online advertising market was in 2004.
  • In general, Canada is a less competitive search engine advertising market, which means there is still a great opportunity for advertisers.
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Can Canadian e-Commerce Be As Successful As the US and UK?

Published June 10, 2007

A few months ago e-Marketer published a report about the state of e-Commerce in Canada. Being the biggest fan and best customer of Canadian e-commerce, I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that it’s is finally starting to take off. But kids, we still have a ways to go before we can truly call ourselves a “leading” e-commerce nation.

Our Dependence on American-based e-tailers

Our love of everything American creates a demand to shop on American-owned-and-managed sites. But many American-based e-tailers simply refuse to accommodate Canadian customers because they don’t wanting to deal with duty, shipping and other nasty fulfillment issues. The result is unfortunate: Canadians are being put off of e-commerce because of negative reinforcement and limitations by U.S. sites.

Case in Point: www.gap.com and www.oldnavy.com sites simply refuse to ship to Canada. A friend of mine who works at the Canadian Gap office told me that Gap Canada’s management has been trying to get their California-based Head Office to consider a “dot ca” or just let Canadians buy off the main site. After much deliberation, the U.S. management decided against selling to Canadians over the internet, because we are not a lucrative e-commerce market. They’re kind of right – but their attitude is also leading to a vicious circle. You can’t create a lucrative e-commerce market by consistently pissing off Canadian e-consumers.

I encountered a similar situation when I tried to buy a special “toddler floaty” swimsuit for my son off the Speedo website. I landed on the Speedo splash page (pardon the pun) and chose Canada. I was impressed to see a fully functional shopping cart in the Canadian site. But, on checkout, the Speedo site refused to take my order and I was left feeling like a second-class citizen (and I was choked I could not get this specialty-suit for my kid). Speedo faked me out and I am now checking out other brands – I even (gasp) had to go to the mall!

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