Canada’s Pandemic Bump. An additional 1 million users will come onto the platform in Canada this year, representing a bona fide pandemic boost. This 16.4% growth is far ahead of the 2.4% growth we expected last year. This rapid increase, coming under extraordinary circumstances, will be but a blip, and growth will drop significantly from 2021 onward.

Wells Fargo has recently been divesting from businesses deemed as less critical, including its asset management arm, its Canadian direct equipment finance unit, and its student loan book. The big takeaway: Banks that sell off non-core assets will free up significant financial and operational resources that could help strengthen core technologies and product offerings.

Canada’s incumbent banks lose ground in customer satisfaction: The Big 5 Canadian banks saw lower overall satisfaction as a group in J.D. Power’s annual survey—but this poses little risk to their market positions, given the strong satisfaction with their direct bank units and their hard-to-replace legacy offerings.

Rising coronavirus infections could also put a damper on spending: Confidence among affluent consumers sinks when COVID-19 cases go up, Best said, citing Visa data. The big takeaway: The strong demand for luxury items shows that many consumers are continuing to spend, and they’re not looking for bargains.

It is unlikely that US adults will be doubling down on their investments anytime soon. Per July 2020 polling from consulting firm Phase5, 45% of US adults said that the pandemic has not created good investment opportunities.

More than a third of adult consumers in Canada are podcast listeners, a growing and lucrative audience for brand engagement.

In 2020, Instagram’s total number of monthly users will hit 1.00 billion for the first time, thanks to a worldwide user growth rate more than double what we had predicted before the pandemic.

It’s Prime Day in June. Amazon traditionally held Prime Day in mid-July but pushed the event to October last year because of the coronavirus pandemic. (The exception was India, where it took place in August 2020.) This year, Amazon will hold Prime Day on June 21–22.

Following nearly 10 years of double-digit growth, ecommerce sales in Canada surpassed 10% of total retail sales for the first time last year, reaching 12.7%. Since 2019, ecommerce sales have nearly doubled their share, reaching $64.51 billion this year.

Limiting political content: In February, Facebook said it had started a test to reduce the distribution of political content on the News Feed for select users in the US, Canada, Brazil, and Indonesia. COVID-19 information from national and local health authorities and content from official government agencies and services are exempt from the experiment.

TD’s concept, at a glance: The Canada-based banking giant recently opened a flagship branch in New York City’s One Vanderbilt, per Insider, adding that it’s also the skyscraper’s anchor tenant. In its new profile of the flagship, which was unveiled in November, Insider outlined features such as:. An open-concept floor plan designed in response to how the pandemic changed consumer patterns.

Forty-three percent of Canadian consumers say they’re financially stressed in the wake of the pandemic, and although they’re saving a higher proportion of their income than in the past, only 22% are financially comfortable, according to the Canadian Payroll Association.

This report summarizes our forecasts for nine countries—the US, Canada, France, Germany, the UK, China, India, Japan, and South Korea—and offers comparative analyses of the major time spent numbers for each.

eMarketer senior analyst at Insider Intelligence Paul Briggs discusses what he's paying attention to in 2021 and why: online grocery shopping, food delivery apps, and more 2021 trends to watch out for in Canada.

Coalition provides companies across the US and Canada with up to $15 million in cyber and technology insurance coverage. A snapshot of cybercrime: The rise of cyber attacks highlights the need for comprehensive insurance. The COVID-19 outbreak has caused an uptick in sophisticated phishing email schemes.

Earlier this month, Toyota, the world’s No. 2 automaker, was forced to shut down factories and cut production in Japan and North America by 40% as a result of the chip shortage and surging COVID-19 cases.

Prior to the pandemic, some remittances from migrant workers were physically transported back to family or friends in India. But this informal channel became increasingly difficult for some as travel restrictions were implemented during the pandemic. This forced a shift to more formal channels, boosting the growth trend in our forecast, and habits will likely remain sticky.

Pandemic-accelerated digitization has been a boon to fintechs that help companies navigate regulations like know your customer (KYC). The retail trading bonanza helped Wealthsimple rake in a roughly $559 million funding round that valued the company at more than $3.5 billion. The fintech also surpassed 2 million users in its home Canadian market.

In 2021, digital payment card transactions—credit card, debit card, and prepaid card—will total $67.74 billion in Canada.

US B2B digital ad spending in 2020 will grow 22.6% year over year amid the coronavirus pandemic. This report breaks down the market factors and B2B-specific considerations that are driving this increase.

But countries like the US and Canada have surged toward digital in recent years. In 2018, less than half of US ad spending went to digital, but that figure will reach 66.9% this year. In Canada, the pattern is similar. Both markets are poised to climb the rankings. By 2025, more than three-quarters of US ad dollars will go toward digital. In China, the figure will be just past 85% at that point.

The “never growing old” generation now faces retirement, a host of chronic health conditions, and mortality. The pandemic sparked a major shift toward digital channels to find health information, assess providers, and research Medicare plans and options.

For that reason, the pandemic had arguably less impact on Israeli media consumption in H1 2020 than on many other countries, where long lockdowns prompted greater usage of home video viewing, for example. Israel did suffer further surges in coronavirus cases in autumn 2020 and Q1 2021, and a lockdown in January and February, which may help to account for some changes seen this year.

In 2021, the number of new smartphone banking users in Canada will plummet to a third of the previous year’s level, which will considerably increase competition among financial institutions (FIs), including Desjardins. As the battle for new mobile users heats up, the features of FIs’ mobile banking apps will be crucial. This report identifies which key growth opportunities Desjardins might focus on to gain and retain customers.