On Black Friday, Canadians shop online, mainly for electronics

Black Friday shopper filmed using belt as whip Adidas cancelled the release of a rare shoe when the crowd got unruly, and one would-be shopper was arrested.

While Black Friday typically used to be an American shopping tradition, over the past five years or so, Canadians have increasingly been taking part in the extra day of sales. In fact, according to Google Canada search trends, Black Friday has overtaken Boxing Day as the biggest shopping day of the year.

Moneris, Canada’s largest processor of credit and debit card payments, predicts spending in Canada on Black Friday will increase between eight and 15 per cent year-over-year respectively for both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It said spending on both days has grown consistently since 2011 and for the past few years, Canadians have spent more on Black Friday then on Boxing Day.

Much of that money is expected to stay in Canada.

A new study conducted by Ipsos, a market research firm, for PayPal, a global digital payments leader, interviewed 1,002 Canadian online shoppers from Ipsos’ online panel.

The study found Canadians are more likely this Black Friday to shop locally. The companies say their research shows three out of four Canadian online shoppers say they will buy from Canadian retailers rather than U.S. or international ones.

The companies say the reason behind the buy-local trend is because Canadians want to support local retailers while also avoiding international shipping costs, taxes, duties and an unfavourable exchange rate.

The Ipsos poll’s accuracy is within +/- 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Canadians heading online to avoid in-store chaos

Still, many Canadians are eager to avoid some of the in-store chaos that comes with Black Friday. To do that, many seem to be heading online.

eBay Canada is bracing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The company says its site traffic has increased steadily over the past five years on Black Friday, and since 2013, Cyber Monday has been the company’s busiest day when it comes to site visits.

Meanwhile, Purolator is also preparing for an increase in activity. It anticipates it will ship around 1 million packages on Cyber Monday alone.

More and more Canadians are using their phones

Many Canadians seem to be reaching for their phones to make some of their online purchases.

In fact, Google Canada says more and more people are using their phones to shop. Last year on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, mobile shopping-related searches almost surpassed those on desktop computers.

eBay Canada echoes that sentiment. It says, in 2015, about 40 per cent of sales on eBay Canada were made using a mobile device.

But what do Canadians want to buy?

eBay Canada predicts many Canadians will want to get their hands on electronics this weekend. It says, last year, electronics were the most purchased items on eBay, in fact about 10 gaming systems were bought every hour during Cyber Week by Canadians.

Twitter Canada agrees Canadians are interested in electronics. The social media giant says, when it comes to holiday sale shopping, its users say they are most likely to purchase consumer electronics or home appliances.

Source: Twitter Canada

The time of day seems to affect what people are shopping for

Here’s a list of what people were shopping for last year on eBay Canada.

Top items purchased throughout Black Friday (EST):

Top items purchased throughout Cyber Monday (EST):