Amazon is Canada’s top e-commerce site

NEW ANALYSIS

Canadian e-commerce sales between the company and all the other retailers,” BMO retail analyst Peter Sklar wrote in the report.

And the top five e-commerce sites ranked in terms of sales, according to BMO’s analysis, are all subsidiaries of U.S. companies: Apple is ranked No. 2 at an estimated $1.6 billion in sales, followed by eBay.ca at $1.5 billion, Costco.ca at $771 million, and Walmart.ca at $605 million.

BMO estimates total Canadian retail e-commerce sales have reached $18 billion, based on an assumption that the top 22 retailers in Canada with at least $100 million in annual Canadian e-commerce sales account for about two-thirds of the present market.

Sklar attributes Amazon’s rapid online sales growth in Canada to a continued growth in product categories at Amazon.ca, as well as a growing number of Canadians who subscribe to Amazon Prime, the e-commerce giant’s $79 annual priority delivery subscription.

In the last five years, Amazon Canada has broadened its distribution beyond the early categories of books and DVDs and into areas such as pet products, toys, apparel, health and beauty items, packaged groceries, and a streaming video service.

On June 16, the retailer announced it had acquired the Whole Foods bricks-andmortar grocery chain for US$13.7 billion.

“While this development signals a negative for incumbent grocers as it emphasizes Amazon’s commitment to be a major player in grocery in North America, we believe the impact on the Canadian retail landscape will be minimal in the foreseeable future,” Sklar said.

“Whole Foods Canada has a limited physical distribution footprint for Amazon to leverage: 13 locations in Canada, with only six offering awkward, semi-online delivery services. The more pressing threat for Canadian retailers is Amazon’s continued foray into general merchandise categories and an increase in the number of Prime-eligible items.”

In the meantime, Walmart in the U.S. has been broadly expanding its e-commerce offering in order to compete with Amazon, acquiring the online fashion retailers ModCloth, Bonobos and Shoes. com.

Walmart Canada, which operates the Walmart.ca website, confirmed this week that it will expand its e-commerce offerings substantially within the next two months as it debuts the offerings of thirdparty retailers and brands on its website to better compete with Amazon and eBay. high in Canada.”

Shaw is scheduled to report results for the three months ending May 31 on Wednesday, so this competitive move won’t be reflected in its upcoming financials.

But promotional activity was higher across the wireless industry as a whole in June when compared to last year, Barclays’ Huang noted, adding the discounts could hurt margins this quarter. Still, he wrote the promotions specifically targeting Freedom could impact its nearterm subscriber results.

RBC analyst Drew McReynolds also cautioned investors to keep expectations for Shaw in check since it’s still early days for its wireless business. McReynolds wrote in a client note he expects volatility in Shaw’s results until it’s further along in deploying its LTE network, though he factored in “meaningful improvement” for 2018.