Ecommerce in Canada has always lagged behind the United States and as consumers return to in-person shopping online sales are slowing more than expected.

Shopify, the biggest Canadian ecommerce platform, invested heavily on the Covid-19 pandemic bump continuing and is now forced to eliminate 1,000 jobs or approximately 10% of their workforce.

CEO Tobias Lutke said “We bet that the channel mix-the share of the dollars that travel through e-commerce rather than physical retail-would permanently leap ahead by five or even 10 years.  It’s now clear that bet didn’t pay off.”

Amazon, the darling of the pandemic economy, finds itself with sliding sales, too many employees and too much warehouse space.

There are a number of reasons for this trend.  Consumers now feel more confident going out in public as vaccine rates are up and cases go down.

There is often a gap between what is ordered and what the retailer fulfills with product substitutions resulting in odd and unwanted items.

Ultimately cost is the biggest reason.  Delivery fees really add up and items are often more expensive online for grocery and consumer products than in store.