Why is online shopping in Quebec so bad?
November 4th, 2008
Like most car owners, I had to buy new winter tires (thanks to our government). I went online searching for online tire dealers in Quebec.
Nothing. Nada.
I expanded my search to Canada and found a couple of dealers. I then expanded by research to the USA and found many dealers. Most offering very good prices, cheaper than local dealers - even when factoring delivery - which cost about 100$.
This is just an example. I’m sure you got frustrated by not finding what you wanted online. Why? Why is online shopping in Quebec so poorly developped? I’m amazed at how many times I have to order something on eBay or Amazon - from the USA - just because I can’t find it here.
High speed Internet is easily available at a reasonable cost. Credit cards are common. If I had a store, you can be assured that I would be online too. Why limit your market to your city?
What are your thoughts on this? Why do you think store owners are not online?
Posted in Quebec, business | Comments (7)
November 5th, 2008 at 11:11 am
the yulbiz group came up with a letter to the premier ministre (Jean Charest) for this
http://zeroseconde.blogspot.com/2008/10/lettre-ouverte-au-premier-ministre-du.html
they are saying Quebec needs to catch up. There’s also a facebook group
(started by Patricia Tessier and Michelle Blanc)
November 5th, 2008 at 11:57 am
I read it and that’s what brought me to write about this topic. I don’t think the Government has anything to do with this. I could be wrong but I don’t think that intensives or their help will improve the current situation…
Could it be our culture? Traditionally, French Canadians were not very entrepreneurial. Most businesses were owned by English businessmen.
Are we seeing the same trend in this new era?
November 7th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
funny about your comment, i posted exactly the same reply in Martin Lessard’s post, saying that governments can’t setup ecommerce websites, this should be done by companies
i don’t know about culture, all i know is that people i know (you or other guys in montreal) are doing new and innovative things. we can’t do everything
November 7th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
The interesting thing about the tire dealers is that during this time of year they are swamped. The local Goodyear dealer I went too said that one morning he found a line-up outside his garage at 8am. If these stores setup a self-serve type of website where you enter what car you have, select what tire you want from what they have in stock, make an appointment, enter your contact details, etc, it would save the garage a ton of work at a time when they just want to be changing tires.
Having an e-commerce type of website could vastly increase the amount of business they could process during this busy period and it certainly would improve customer service.
November 7th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
@heri, yeah we can’t save the planet, that’s for sure.
@Darrel: I totally agree. I have unusual tire size and not all stores have it. Some stores have websites but they are no better than a Yellow Page ad…
December 1st, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Seems like an opportunity for a startup to setup turnkey ecommerce platforms for local businesses around Quebec (and Canada)!!
December 1st, 2008 at 6:25 pm
@Jeff That’s exactly what I had in mind a few weeks ago… I still think it’s a good idea…