For Panierdachat, positioned as the alternative to Shopify, Quebec, the pandemic changed everything. Previously, its customers were 250 dealers. Now she has 500. Look back at an amazing year of online sales.

“Selling online was the number three priority for most companies. During the pandemic, it became the number one priority,” notes Panierdachat’s president, Emanuelle Duchesne.

The number of businesses switching to e-commerce in Quebec over the past year, according to the Quebec Retail Council (CQCD), jumped from 36% to 44%. According to CQCD projections, this percentage should increase to 64% by 2023.

The number of Panierdachat users is far from the number of users of the Canadian company Shopify, which has more than a million merchants using its platform to build their transaction sites. Despite everything, the Montreal-based company, which launched its platform in 2016, did well with its easy-to-use system aimed at small Quebec merchants. Its clients include Fromagerie Bergeron, gift store Chez Farfelu and Hydro-Québec for its in-house online store.

“In March, when almost everything shut down, we were at a moment in time when we didn’t know where things were going. Then we had a wave. We had to adapt quickly, because we had a lot of requests,” said the girl who founded the company with Her partner, Pascal Couturier.

On March 14th, the first mask was sold by a dealer using Panierdachat. In December, 55,000 masks found buyers through their platform, accounting for more than a third of the products sold. In 2020 the number of Panierdachat dealers doubled, but the number of items sold tripled, reaching 152,000.

After that record and eventful year, Mr.^{I am} Duchesne is preparing to launch a new generation of its platform in May, in order to offer new features, such as inventory synchronization, with Quebec partners. It also wants, among other things, to devise solutions for environmental delivery and newsletter sending.

In March, when nearly everything was shut down, we were at a moment in time when we didn’t know where things were going. Then we had a wave. We had to adapt quickly, because we had so many requests.

Thought mr.^{I am} Duchesn. “They were forced to sell online, and that was the only option. But now that the business has reopened, the risk is to abandon it. But I think many consumers have enjoyed the online shopping experience and will want to continue. Merchants must continue.” Retail offers multiple sales channels, “she says.

Online sales are on the rise

It’s not just the number of commercial transaction sites increasing over the past year. Statistics Canada reported a 70% increase in online sales volume between December 2019 and December 2020, from $ 2.8 billion to $ 4.7 billion. These numbers are not specifically available in Quebec, but there are indications that Quebec business has not been excluded.

Rablab Internet Marketing Agency has evaluated the online store performance of about thirty of its customers, all of whom are from Quebec and an online sales volume of between $ 100,000 and $ 750,000 per year. They see an average increase of 298% of those sales during the last three months of 2020 compared to the previous year.

“Nothing on the horizon makes us say things are going to go down again,” says Maxime Bergeron, Partner and Marketing Director at Replap. But it is certain that when we look at the numbers for 2021, there will never be an amazing increase again. It will definitely be closer to 2020. ‘

Mr Bergeron believes, however, that merchants should pay attention to their sites and invest in marketing so they can stand out from this abundant supply online. He also believes that consideration should not be neglected of all management costs associated with this technology. Because if online sales are necessary today, they represent additional costs to traders.