A couple of months ago, I had the pleasure of speaking with Natalie Myers, a reporter from MarketingSherpa. She called me because she was curious to understand more about the Canadian online shopper. Since I’m a Canadian living, working and shopping in Canada, I was happy to step up and share my views with Natalie. And in the end, so did several others – hence why it’s been in the works for several months!
The result of all this input is outstanding. It’s part one of a Special Report called Marketing to Canadians: How to Deal with Language, Cultural, Location and Regulation Differences.
So for anyone looking to maximize conversion opportunities in Canada, this report is jammed with great strategies and tactics you can’t ignore. Here’s a hint of what you’ll learn…
As Canadians, we want to know a few things right up front. Perhaps one of the top things is do you ship to Canada? Letting this be known right up front in a visit is key. At Sitebrand, we have many US ecommerce sites reinforcing this type of messaging through geotargeting and it’s highly successful in terms of lifting conversion. In fact, this Sherpa report references Kiyonna, a Sitebrand customer who does a great job recognizing and responding to Canadian visitors in a creative, fun way. It’s referenced with some graphic examples of how they personalize the experience for Canadian visitors, so check that out. For more on geo-targeting and how it can improve convesion, you can also browse Sitebrand’s library of case studies.
Another nice touch is Canadian pricing and if you can have it via a Canadian site, even better! One site that impresses me is Proactiv Solution. This is a US site that does an amazing job recognizing international visitors - including Canadians via a Canadian site that clearly states Canadian pricing in red font (when you think of the red maple leaf in our flag, this is colour of font is very appropriate).
By the way, notice how I spelled “colour”, that’s the Canadian way of spelling colour. And this is another point made in this special report. To really appeal to Canadians, use Canadian English. It’s subtle, but we notice – i.e color is colour, pay by check is pay by cheque, behaviour is behavior etc.
Anyhow, back to Proactiv Solution, they’ve purchased all the right domains and they’ve set it all up to work like a charm. I bet they have huge success around the world and give kudos to the extra steps they take online. Even when you proceed through the Proactiv Solution checkout, it’s smart enough to prepopulate the country datafield to be “Canada”. And it asks for postal code which is the Canadian equiv of a US zip code. Love it! Nothing more frustrating than being forced to put a zip code in when you don’t have one! Trust me, it will contribute to lost sales in a big way.
Getting back to the importance of shipping - if you can make shipping affordable to the Canadian visitor, this is a definite advantage. Simply offering great pricing isn’t going to make us buy. Shipping has to be reasonable or we’re out.
I could go on and on, but I think you should just read the report. And after you do, post a comment and let’s get start some chatter. For example, are you doing anything special to encourage Canadians to buy online? If yes, what? If no, why?
