Buying Online

Buying a product online is something that a growing number of Canadians are doing -- but they're not always shopping at Canadian outlets. With the onslaught of TV and billboard advertisements from big U.S. based companies such as Amazon.com, Buy.com and others, comparing prices and checking Canadian warranties can be both confusing and challenging. In this article, we'll provide some links and tips to help you shop safely and securely online.

Safe Shopping

A good place to start is the Better Business Bureau. This reputable organization provides Wise Giving Advice for the Holiday Season and Tips for Holiday Shopping on the Net.

A series of online shopping tips from the FTC proves prudent advice for Canadians, too. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has released a Consumer Alert about holiday shopping online.  The Alert is available on the FTC's Web site at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt082.shtm

As well, former U.S. President Clinton talked about shopping safely online during a radio address on Nov. 27th.  To coincide with this, the FTC created a special Holiday Shopping Online page that is now available at www.ftc.gov.  The page offers online shopping tips, and provides links to consumer and business education materials, including information about charitable giving. The site also gives consumers the opportunity to file a complaint with the FTC online.

Once you've made sure your web browser is updated to the latest "secure" version -- in North America, the best security available is known as "128-bit" encryption. A visit to the download page for your favourite web browser will provide details on how to download this free "high security" patch, that makes it virtually impossible for anyone to steal your credit card information during an online transaction. This is because the data sent is encrypted with a complex string of numbers that has, at this 128-bit length, never been broken -- not even by the most powerful supercomputers. So, it's pretty safe.

As noted by the Canadian Bankers Association, Internet commerce is no more prone to fraud than other types of payment mechanisms.

Safe Email

Another issue is that of e-mail. Sometimes you might be sending private information via an e-mail account, where many of the same issues may arise. An article from Microsoft provides some tips on Safe and Effective E-mail.

Some Statistics

In fact, the Canadian Government's Task Force on Electronic Commerce has released a number of worthwhile documents, including Principles of Consumer Protection for Electronic Commerce and Supporting Documentation and some E-Com Fast Facts & Statistics.

Here's a summary of some of the key points from this latter document, which is posted online in Adobe's Acrobat Portable Document Format (and thus requires the free Acrobat Reader to view):

Canadian Internet Commerce Statistics

Summary Sheet (August 26, 1999)

Prepared by the Task Force on Electronic Commerce

E-Com Metric Source

1. Global Internet Commerce - 1998

• Business to Business US $68 billion
• Business to Consumer US $13 billion
• Total US $81 billion

Industry Canada estimates (December 1998) based on Forrester Research data.

2. Expected Global Internet Commerce -  2003

• Business to Business US $2,960 billion
• Business to Consumer US $240 billion
• Total US $3,200 billion

Industry Canada estimates (December 1998) based on Forrester Research data.

3. Canadian Internet Commerce - 1998

• Total US $5.5 billion

Industry Canada estimate (December 1998) based on Forrester and IDC data.

4. Expected Canadian Internet Commerce - 2003

• Total US $70 billion (2.1% of global value)

Industry Canada Estimate (December 1998) based on Forrester data.

5. Targeted Canadian Internet Commerce - 2003

• Total US $160 billion (5% of global value)

Advantage Canad@ Deck, 1999.

6. Canadians Accessing the Internet

• (April) 1999 40.4%
• 1998 37%
• 1997 31%
• 1996 23%

IDC, The Canadian Consumer Internet Market: Second Quarter Report, April 1999. & *AC Neilsen, The Canadian Internet Survey, 1996, 1997, 1998.

7. Internet Access by Region

• Atlantic 31.7%
• Quebec 34.8%
• Ontario 45.4%

IDC, The Canadian Consumer Internet Market: Second Quarter Report, April 1999.

• Man./Sask. 39.1%
• Alberta 39.4%
• B.C. 44.1%

Recommendations

It is your responsibility to research the reliability of vendors you deal with. Remember the old adage: is a deal seems too good to be true, there's probably a reason. Our overall recommendation is: buy from a Canadian source you've heard positive things about from people you trust. For example, we've had very good experiences with the online book (etc.) seller Chapters.ca, but it took the comments of a close friend to encourage us to find out for ourselves. Remember, just because an e-commerce storefront looks impressive, doesn't mean the products will arrive as promised. A company with a bricks-and-mortar presence in Canada is by no means a guarantee of online satisfaction, but it suggests that you are at least likely to be able to reach the company in the event of a product defect or other problem.