The retailers

In 2002, Canadians spent about $307 billion on retail trade. Trips to supermarkets and other food stores accounted for approximately $67 billion (22%) of this total. Interestingly, food retailers are becoming more diversified: about 25% of all sales in food stores were non-food items in 2002, compared with 20% in 1997. Health and personal care products, as well as lawn and garden supplies were the fastest growing non-food items. To adjust to changing consumer preferences, many grocery stores and supermarkets are now staying open longer, adding take-out sections and catering ready-made food to busy families.

Of the $307 billion spent on retail trade in 2002, slightly more than $18 billion was spent on furniture (including household appliances and electronics). While not the biggest component of retail trade, it has certainly been the fastest growing over the last few years. In 2002, furniture stores enjoyed their best year in sales growth since 1987 (+11.6%). Furthermore, 2002 was the sixth consecutive year in which consumers increased spending in furniture stores by at least 8% annually. Housing starts, which posted their highest activity level since 1989, as well as continuing credit incentives, provided a great deal of stimulus to furniture store sales in 2002. Furniture stores generate about 40% of their total sales from household appliances and furniture, and approximately 30% from sales of home electronics.

Though many retailers began to gear up for e-commerce by adding Internet catalogue shopping and online customer assistance, only 27.4% of sales over the Internet were to consumers or households in 2002. The dollar value of business-to-consumer sales rose 58.5% to $3.7 billion in 2002. The retail trade sector accounted for the largest share of the business-to-consumer market at 39.8%, followed by the finance and insurance sector (15.6%) and the information and cultural industries sector (13.1%). The proportion of private sector businesses selling goods and services online rose marginally from 6.7% in 2001 to 7.5% in 2002. Yet, the value of online orders rose 28.4% from 2001 to $13.3 billion in 2002. This follows an increase of 84.1% in online sales in 2001.