Online sales by businesses rise to $136B in Canada

Canadian businesses sold more than $136 billion worth of goods and services over the internet last year, up from $122 billion the year before, Statistics Canada says.

The majority, roughly 61 per cent of those sales, came from the wholesale trade, manufacturing and retail industries. That ratio was about the same as it was in2012.

But the service sector showed growth, rising to 13 per cent (from 11 per cent) of everything sold via the internet last year.

Large companies, classified by the data agency as those with 100 or more employees, were responsible for all the sales growth. Big companies also did most of the selling online, racking up some $87 billion last year, or 64 per cent of the $136-billion total.

Roughly 46 per cent of all Canadian companies have some sort of website, about the same ratio as 2012. But that ratio jumps to 91 per cent for big companies, Statistics Canada says.

Almost one in five companies with a website also have a version of their site that's optimized for mobile users, a sign of the digital times.

Among companies with the ability to sell online, almost a quarter of their entire sales happened there.

It's not just end-user consumers doing the buying.

Just less thanhalf of all companies, 47 per cent, purchased goods or services online in2013.