Retail ecommerce was thrust forward in 2020, mostly due to periodic stay-at-home measures enacted across the country. During mandated quarantines in the first wave of the pandemic and a second wave in the fall that coincided with the holiday shopping season, consumers shopped online to a degree they never had before. Retailers in Canada quickly adapted to these new conditions, setting them up for continued high volumes of online ordering in 2021.

Ecommerce’s share of total retail in Canada is higher than we previously expected, as brick-and-mortar outlets are forced to shutter and online shopping becomes a necessity.

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.

On today's episode, we discuss the most interesting aspects of Amazon's Q1 results, including whether it's losing in groceries, shoppers who may never go back into stores, and how local businesses are fighting back against Amazon in Canada. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer director of forecasting Cindy Liu and analyst at Insider Intelligence Daniel Keyes.

The adoption of social commerce—the ability to shop and buy, directly or indirectly, via social media platforms—accelerated during the pandemic. The vast majority of social commerce today is within the discovery and consideration stages. However, checkout capabilities are not available from the leading social networks in Canada.

In the UK and Canada, the pandemic has yielded very different results in 2020—a 59.9% plunge in digital-only DAO in the UK and a massive 342.6% explosion in Canada. However, by 2022, raw digital-only bank account opening will be dwindling gently in both countries.

Average daily time spent with media shot past the 10-hour mark last year, pushing media consumption to new levels in Canada.