Boxing Day – make that Boxing Week – bonanza

What do Canadians do after they’ve finished their Christmas shopping?  They shop some more.

True to form, hordes of deal seekers lined up outside major stores across the country today — and in some cases, before Christmas day was even over — to take advantage of deep discounts.

As in many Commonwealth countries, December 26 is called Boxing Day in Canada.  It’s a statutory holiday in the province of Ontario, meaning workers get a paid day off.  Even though it’s not a statutory holiday in other parts of Canada, many offices remain closed the day after Christmas.

Make of break time

Retailers, however, open their doors and they do so as early as possible because Boxing Day is by far the most important time of the year for their bottom line.

“Depending on the different legislation in different jurisdictions, I can assure you that if a retailer can open at one o’clock in the morning or at 12:01 am they will,”  says Diane Brisebois, president and chief executive officer of the Retail Council of Canada.

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Thanks to the internet, store hours legislation is not so much a problem anymore.  For instance, while the electronics chains Best Buy and Future Shop opened their brick-and-mortar locations at 6 am local time today, their online Boxing Day sale started at 8 P.M. EST on December 24th.

Stores are eager to clear shelves to make room for new merchandise and some

slash prices by as much as 80% to make sure they don’t get stuck with old inventory.  Most also extend their sales beyond December 26 and often well into January.  As a result, Brisebois says that Boxing Week revenues account for at least 25% of retailers’ total annual profits.

According to a survey conducted by the Bank of Montreal’s economics department, 59% of Canadians planned on shopping on Boxing day this year — a 3% decrease over 2012 — and they indicated that they intended to spend as much as last year.

How they do it

Interestingly, Canada ranks as the third “most cashless society” in the world, behind Belgium and France, according to Mastercard.  Therefore almost all shoppers will have pulled a debit or a credit card out of their wallet at the cash register to pay for their purchases today.

And while Canadians are increasingly shopping online, the vast majority of bargain hunters will join the jostling crowds to buy that item they have their eye on and didn’t receive for Christmas.  “We expect certainly that the total e-commerce sales will represent between 5% to 8% of all retail,” says Brisebois.  “That doesn’t seem to be a lot, but it is, considering that three or four years ago that there was barely anything done online in Canada.”