After a long-weekend in the United States and Canada filled with massive sales and promotions for Black Friday, online consumers across the world are now getting their own special deals for Cyber Monday.
A number of retailers held web-only sales Nov. 26 as a way to drive traffic and dollars to their websites.
A recent Visa Canada poll found about 40 per cent of those Canadian dollars go towards purchasing products from U.S. based companies.
Now, Canadian retailers are looking at keeping those dollars from being sent south of the border.
“We have a lot of products we don’t actually carry in the store, such as luggage, baby products, lego, camping supplies,” said Lyle Hrushowy, the operations manager of Future Shop.
Hrushowy said Future Shop will be offering competitive prices, free shipping and will allow consumers to return the items directly to their stores.
Those options aren’t always available when dealing with American retailers.
Last year, shoe retailer Zappos.com pulled out of the Canadian market after problems with shipping and customer service.
Other retailers, including clothing retailer J. Crew, charge Canadian shoppers more for the same products found on their U.S. sites.
One Canadian site is hoping to answer those problems. Toronto-based Shop.ca is a virtual department store that offers clothing, shoes, housewares and electronics.
“It’s Canadian businesses it’s employing, and those products are being shipped from Canada,” said Drew Green, the founder of Shop.ca “You’ll never have duty. You’ll never have brokerage fees. You’ll never have extra shipping.”
Draws like that are what Canadian retailers hope consumers will consider on Cyber Monday.
