July 1st might be the real Canada Day, but for SmartScout, it was last week when we finally opened up our tool to the Canadian marketplace!
Canada has slowly been invading America for years, mostly through its popular exports of food (maple syrup, Canadian bacon), actors (Jim Carrey, Ryan Reynolds), and singers (Celine Dion, Michael Buble). If only it could figure out how to pass along some of its excessive politeness, eh?
With SmartScout now available in Canada, it’s time to turn the tables by finding out what Canadians are missing from their Amazon experience.
Here Are Some of the Top Things To Know About Amazon.ca:
Market size - Sales estimates for 2019 (the most recent year with available data) shows about $5 billion in revenue. If Canada’s marketplace grew as much as Amazon did overall in 2020, then sales could have been around $6-7 billion. Canadians like Amazon more than it seems, though. Need proof? Check out the 4th highest selling online store. Yep.
Prime membership - Amazon has about 2 million Prime members.
Seller size - Amazon.ca sellers aren’t nearly as big as on Amazon.com, making it much easier to break into the market if you know what you’re doing.
Should You Be Selling in Amazon.ca?
That depends. Are you Canadian? Then definitely, yes!
If you’re a foreigner, where are you at in your business development? If you’re a brand new seller, stay focused on your home country first. Make sure you’ve got your supply chain figured out, your listings fully optimized, and you understand how to run effective ad campaigns. Basically, just be sure that you know everything serious about running your store.
If you’ve got a firm grip on everything and are ready for more markets, Canada is probably the best place for American sellers to move to next. There are essentially no cultural differences, and not much of a language barrier (except for French Canadians). There will always be regulations to figure out, particularly around taxes and compliance, so be sure to do your research.
You can get started here.
Most sellers report that Canada is able to boost their sales by 10-15 percent, so if you have everything in your business running smoothly, it’s a worthwhile investment. If you are not American, that means you should be operating a U.S. store before you move to Canada. From there, it should be an easy addition.
Obviously, we recommend using SmartScout to see which categories, subcategories, brands, and products are most ready for you to take over. Make sure to hop in and try it out today!
