Buy local: Amazon takes a hit as Quebecers boycott American products

Amazon's DXT4 warehouse in Laval, shortly before the U.S. e-commerce giant's seven Quebec warehouses close on Wednesday, January 22, 2025. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press)

Quebecers have been quick to boycott American products.

The NETendances 2024 survey released on Thursday reveals that three quarters (75 per cent) of Quebecers say they have reduced (33 per cent) or completely stopped (42 per cent) buying American products at the grocery store.

Things are not much better for American products on the web, with an almost equally large proportion (73 per cent) of Quebecers saying they have reduced or stopped buying online from American merchants. This trend is not insignificant, given that three quarters of Quebecers shop online, a proportion that has remained stable since 2021.

Amazon takes the hit

The survey shows that the American giant Amazon has been particularly hard hit, since before the boycott movement, 85 per cent of online consumers had made at least one purchase on Amazon, and almost half (48 per cent) had done at least 75 per cent of their online purchases on this platform.

However, when NETendances went back to survey Quebecers in March, it found that half (49 per cent) had either completely stopped (17 per cent) or reduced (32 per cent) their Amazon purchases. What’s more, 10 per cent of Internet users have ended their Amazon Prime subscription, with the subscription rate falling from 38 per cent of Internet users at the end of 2024 to 29 per cent in March 2025, according to the researchers’ calculations.

Other American online merchants are suffering even more, with seven out of 10 Quebecers saying they have stopped buying from them altogether (23 per cent).

Imports from China surge

At the other end of the scale, direct import sites from China have surged to 40 per cent, followed closely by Shein (21 per cent) and Wish (5 per cent).

It’s worth noting that this 40 per cent share is unevenly divided, with 50 per cent being women and 30 per cent men. The 18-34 age group is also over-represented.

Quebec retailers lagging behind

And where does this leave Quebec e-commerce? Quebec retailers may well have to do some soul-searching, whether in terms of marketing, advertising, pricing or delivery costs, since a slight majority (53 per cent) of Internet users have never made an online purchase from a Quebec merchant.

They would therefore do well to take into account the motivations of online consumers, which are clearly identified by the survey. It will come as no surprise to anyone to learn that price is at the top (42 per cent) of the decisive criteria for choosing an online merchant, with free delivery a close second at 35 per cent. Free delivery is also the main reason why 65 per cent of respondents join a loyalty scheme.

The importance of delivery costs

Delivery costs are so important that 80 per cent of consumers, or 43 per cent, choose only merchants offering free delivery.

The NETendances survey, conducted by Université Laval’s Académie de la transformation numérique (ATN), is based on two data collections, the first from Jan. 15 to 31, 2025, among 1,068 Quebec Internet users aged 18 and over, and the second from March 13 to 30, 2025, among 1,046 respondents to measure the impact of trade tensions with the United States.

Non-Internet users from the survey’s annual telephone survey were added to the sample, weighted according to gender, age, region, language and level of education. Since this is a web survey, there is no margin of error in this report.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on May 8, 2025.

By Pierre Saint-Arnaud, The Canadian Press