Canada’s Online Shopping Boom Set to Endure Well After Virus
A customer exits a Loblaws store in Ottawa, Ontario, in July.
Photographer: David Kawai/BloombergSpurred by pandemic concerns and enticed by convenience, Canadians have taken to ordering more of their groceries and takeout food online, a trend that’s expected to endure long after the health crisis ends.
Demand in Canada, which is struggling to contain rising Covid-19 infection rates during a second wave, is so great that companies are committing more than C$12 billion ($9.1 billion) to online interface services in the food industry for the next five years, according to estimates by the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.