Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm pleased to have this opportunity to speak to Canada Post's role in enabling retailers to succeed in e-commerce. I'm joined by Dennis Jarvis, general manager of international product management at Canada Post.
First, here's some background. In 2015 Canada Post became the country's number-one parcel company, a position we still hold. We chose e-commerce as our growth strategy back in 2011. Within five years, we grew our annual parcels revenue by $521 million. It reached $1.74 billion in 2016, and we expect to exceed $2 billion at the end of this year. We are a vital part of the e-commerce ecosystem.
We expect to see much more growth in e-commerce, both domestic and international. Canadian retailers lag both the U.S. and the U.K. in e-commerce sales as a percentage of total sales. The research firm eMarketer forecast that 10% of Canadian retail sales will be online in 2020, but the U.S. figure is 12.5% in 2020, and the U.K. is even higher than that.
Canada is also behind as an e-commerce exporter. Research by the International Post Corporation, or IPC, reveals that only 2% of global online shoppers bought from Canada, while 67% bought from the U.S. The IPC also says that Canada's biggest e-commerce customers by far are the U.S., which accounts for 42% of exports by dollar value, and China, at 27%. Next come Australia at 4% and France and the U.K. at 3%.
There's an enormous opportunity for Canadian retailers to sell into foreign markets. For example, a recent Ipsos study found that 72% of U.S. consumers are open to purchasing from Canada, but only 20% have done so.
By adopting a global perspective, entrepreneurs and innovators can encourage the development of uniquely Canadian offerings and sell more of them to the world. However, the global opportunity is not the same for everyone. If your offer is uniquely Canadian, you have an opportunity. That said, Canadian businesses face many time-consuming challenges and may view exporting as complex. It is one more item on a long list of issues they need to address.
Let me speak to how we enable e-commerce. We are more than a delivery company; we are a critical enabler of e-commerce. We have helped small e-commerce start-ups grow out of their garages and become multi-million-dollar enterprises exporting to the U.S. We are interconnected with e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce, whose software powers e-commerce. We integrated our shipping and delivery tools into their platforms to help merchants operate effectively and ship abroad. We partner with them to educate the market.
In 2012, we invited retails' brightest lights to shine at the first Canada Post E-Commerce Innovation Awards. This annual event helps us identify the rising stars in the industry; then we help them grow. We're an active partner, an enabler, a catalyst.
We also survey thousands of Canada's online shoppers to understand their evolving needs and preferences. We share our findings and insights with retailers in white papers, reports, and blogs on canadapost.ca. Our content helps them make better business decisions and improve their operations.
We also cross the country to industry conferences and partner conferences and host our own events. We've partnered with the e-commerce marketplaces eBay, Etsy, and Paypal to make shipping easier for merchants on these platforms. We've partnered with industry associations such as the Retail Council of Canada, and together we offer ongoing education.
Our Solutions for Small Business program saves about 530,000 members time and money as they ship orders, market their business, and run their online store.
We also work with international postal associations and in bilateral partnerships to better enable shipping services for e-commerce across our border.
A stronger e-commerce sector means a stronger Canada Post and a stronger Canada. For these reasons, we are committed to working with Canadian entrepreneurs and retailers to help them launch businesses, grow, innovate, and succeed in Canada and abroad.
In their early years, small and medium-sized enterprises tend to focus on the Canadian market. Exporting is a bit more challenging. They walk before they run. We help them. To run, and run well, they need more current and relevant trade data that would help them identify the export opportunities. They need to leverage resources, solutions, and tools to effectively take advantage of those opportunities. They could also benefit from more help to promote their brands abroad.
We hope this review has helped identify some of the opportunities and challenges. We would welcome your questions.
Thank you.