Canada Ecommerce Industry Report

Traffic Peaks and the Recent Slide

Canada e-commerce stores averaged 100729.65 monthly visits in 2026-09, the lowest monthly average in the dataset and a steep drop from the 2024-10 peak of 182306.15. The series opened at 119505.59 in 2024-01 and climbed through 2024 to reach 169206.65 in 2024-09 and 182306.15 in 2024-10, then retreated. The 2025 stretch stayed below those 2024 highs, with a trough of 116222.39 in 2025-04 and a modest recovery to 131233.42 in 2025-11. Early 2026 brought renewed momentum, peaking at 159449.08 in 2026-04, but the second half of 2026 reversed sharply: 122366.23 in 2026-07, 107670.69 in 2026-08, and 100729.65 in 2026-09. The store count in the traffic panel held at 5479 for most of 2024 and 2025, then edged down to 5459 by 2026-07 and 2026-08 before rising to 5496 in the latest month, meaning the per-store average decline occurred even as the panel expanded.

Organic Search Dominates the Traffic Mix

The latest traffic split shows organic search carrying the overwhelming share of visits: 397229672 of 553610164 total visits, or 71.8%. Paid social contributed 7465506 visits (1.3%), organic social 1439622 (0.3%), and paid search 313415 (0.1%). The reliance on organic search is heavy, and its year-over-year growth of -9.0% indicates the channel anchoring Canadian store traffic is contracting. Paid channels remain marginal by comparison: paid social at 1.3% and paid search at 0.1% of total traffic leave little cushion if organic search continues to slide. The distance between the 71.8% organic share and the small paid and organic social percentages underscores how narrow the acquisition base is for this segment.

Revenue Trails Traffic Lower

Average revenue for Canadian stores reached 952213.54 in 2026-09, down from 1018199.08 in 2025-09 and 1651928.74 in 2024-09. The 2024 peak of 1794043.71 in 2024-10 was followed by a weaker 2025, with a low of 968330.72 in 2025-04, and a brief 2026 rebound to 1301612.36 in 2026-04. Since then, average revenue fell in each subsequent month through 2026-08, landing at 924760.48, before a slight uptick to 952213.54 in 2026-09. The revenue panel store count moved from 5310 for most of 2024 and 2025 to 5329 in 2026-09, with a dip to 5297 in 2026-07 and 2026-08. The combined picture is a market where average traffic per store has fallen to its lowest recorded level, organic search is the dominant but shrinking channel at 71.8% of visits, and average revenue sits well below the 2024 and 2025 comparables.

SEO Traffic Trajectory

Canadian e-commerce stores in the benchmark averaged 72276.14 organic SEO visits in the most recent month (2026-09-01), down from 73214.87 in 2026-08-01 and 85782.04 in 2026-07-01. Organic search traffic growth is reported at -9.0% and organic SERPs growth at -29.5%, meaning the erosion in search result presence is roughly three times steeper than the erosion in actual visits. Average total traffic in the same month was 100729.65, so organic search continues to carry the large majority of visits even as both figures contract together.

The current level is far below the 143348.24 average SEO visits recorded in 2024-10-01, when average total traffic peaked at 182306.15. The 2025 calendar year settled into a narrow band, with monthly SEO traffic sitting between 89877.33 (2025-09-01) and 94144.81 (2025-12-01). A brief recovery appeared in 2026-04-01, when average SEO traffic reached 108701.19 and total traffic hit 159449.08, but the trend reversed through the summer. The reporting panel itself has shifted: 5496 stores are represented in 2026-09-01, versus 5479 for most of 2024 and 2025.

Traffic Distribution Across Store Sizes

Organic traffic is heavily concentrated at the low end. Of the stores measured, 4026 fall into the under 50000 visits band, while 468 sit in the 100000-250000 range and only 192 exceed 250000 visits. That means roughly three quarters of the cohort operates below 50000 organic visits per month.

The gap between the segment average of 72276.14 and the 4026 stores in the smallest band is the central SEO story for Canadian e-commerce: a relatively small set of high-authority domains lifts the mean, while the bulk of merchants compete for modest organic volume. The median merchant is therefore exposed to far more volatility than the headline average suggests, particularly given the -29.5% organic SERPs growth figure.

Domain Authority and Backlink Profile

Average PageRank for the segment is 2.05, with year-over-year growth of -10.3%. In the 2026-09-01 snapshot, 1865 stores averaged a PageRank of 2.19. The series has been volatile: it reached 3.19 in 2024-10-01 and 2.96 across much of 2025, before falling to 2.08 in 2026-04-01.

Referring domain counts have followed a similar path. In 2026-09-01, 5440 stores averaged 17273.90 backlinks and 493.21 referring domains. Earlier periods show wider spread on smaller samples, including 47679.84 average backlinks across 165 stores in 2025-02-01 and 44391.35 across 358 stores in 2025-05-01. The most recent partial panel, covering only 336 stores in 2026-10-01, shows 35821.34 average backlinks and 840.14 referring domains, alongside an average PageRank of 2.73 and 1925 stores in the authority series. Those figures rest on a much smaller and likely different set of domains, so they should be read as directional rather than representative of the full Canadian cohort.

Google Ads: A Sharp Contraction in Spend and Participation

Segment average Google Ads spend landed at $213.9548 in the most recent month (2026-09-01), measured across 354 active stores. That is 61.4% of the global average of $348.6684, placing Canadian e-commerce stores meaningfully below the global benchmark. The drop is severe against earlier points in the series, where averages reached $12052.1475 (2026-04-01), $11552.8907 (2025-11-01), $11517.9394 (2026-02-01) and $12052.1475 in April 2026 alone. Even the steadier stretch of 2025 shows higher levels, from $9357.7112 in 2025-01-01 to $11033.5243 in 2025-08-01 and $11040.3141 in 2025-09-01. The August 2026 reading of $10705.1219 across 1952 stores sits far above the latest month.

Participation tells the same story. 30.58% of stores were active on Google Ads this year, while only 11.02% were active last month, a steep narrowing of the advertiser base. Paid Google traffic averaged 481.4363 sessions in 2026-09-01 across 651 stores, versus 33438.2571 in 2026-05-01, 33018.9289 in 2026-04-01 and 30357.8829 in 2026-02-01. Paid traffic year-over-year growth stands at -67.1%.

Meta Ads: Above Global Benchmark and Still Broadening

Estimated Meta Ads spend averaged $3590.2318 in the most recent month across 1454 stores, equal to 126.6% of the global average of $2428.9679. Canada therefore overspends on Meta relative to the global baseline, in direct contrast to its Google position. The long-run trajectory is firmly upward: average spend was $432.75 in 2024-01-01, $1068.9943 in 2025-11-01, $1412.1517 in 2026-03-01, $1838.7680 in 2026-05-01, $2364.5475 in 2026-06-01 and $3564.1978 in 2026-08-01.

Estimated Meta traffic has tracked that rise, reaching 5169.0585 in 2026-09-01, 5131.5854 in 2026-08-01 and 4786.1189 in 2026-07-01, stepping up from 2033.1470 in 2026-03-01. Adoption is the standout metric: 42.16% of stores were active on Meta Ads this year, and 71.18% were active last month. That last-month figure is far ahead of the 11.02% recorded for Google Ads, making Meta the dominant paid channel by store count in the segment.

Total Paid Media: Running Above the Global Average

Combined paid media spend averages $2890.0191 for the segment against a global average of $2362.7670, which is 122.3% of the global figure. The total is carried by Meta, given that Google spend of $213.9548 represents only 61.4% of the global $348.6684 while Meta spend of $3074.5499 reaches 126.6% of the global $2428.9679.

Paid cost year-over-year growth is -8.2%, a far milder contraction than the -67.1% paid traffic decline. The gap between those two figures indicates that the segment is absorbing fewer paid visits at a higher relative cost, with budget consolidating onto Meta even as total measured paid traffic shrinks.

Instagram reach per store contracts as the tracked base expands

Average Instagram traffic per store in Canada stood at 297.75 in September 2026, down from a peak of 751.75 in April 2025, while the number of stores tracked grew from 187 to 4296 over the same window. Instagram's share of total site traffic was 0.4% in the most recent month. Total traffic per store fell from 163830.58 in April 2025 to 84363.11 in September 2026, so the decline in Instagram visits runs ahead of the decline in overall traffic. The series shows one clear interruption: July 2026 delivered 685.29 average Instagram visits per store and a 0.7% traffic share, the highest share recorded in the dataset. That spike was not sustained, as August 2026 pulled back to 484.41 and 0.6% before September 2026 returned to 0.4%. Posting cadence moved the other way, with average Instagram posts per week rising by 0.29 to 2.91 from 2.63 in the prior month. Stores are publishing more while earning less per post on Instagram.

TikTok holds a thin but widening share of store coverage

TikTok average traffic per store reached 151.54 in September 2026, with 1059 stores tracked and a traffic share of 0.1%. The metric has been comparatively flat for a year: it was 143.24 in January 2026, 125.0 in March 2026, and 151.54 in the latest month. The earlier high of 247.33 came in July 2025, and the low of 30.95 came in January 2025 when only 20 stores were tracked. Stability in per-store traffic sits alongside an acceleration in publishing. Weekly TikTok uploads rose by 0.96 to 2.68 from 1.72 in the previous month. Store coverage also continues to grow, from 900 in March 2026 to 1059 in September 2026. Rising uploads combined with flat per-store traffic means incremental reach per video is compressing.

Organic social engagement stays marginal against posting volume

Average organic social traffic per store was 261.94 in September 2026, or 0.3% of total traffic, with 5496 stores tracked. The July 2026 peak was 471.85 and a 0.4% share, and August 2026 settled at 366.85 and 0.3%. Total traffic per store across the cohort fell to 100729.65 in September 2026 from 122366.23 in July 2026. Publishing activity runs well ahead of engagement, since stores average 3.54 posts per week and the cohort's average engagement rate is 0.0%. Follower distribution is heavily weighted to smaller accounts, with 2518 stores under 10000 followers, 1287 in the 10000 to 50000 band, 292 in the 50000 to 100000 band, 178 in the 100000 to 250000 band, and 104 above 250000. Organic social therefore remains a long-tail, low-yield source for Canadian e-commerce, where modest Instagram and TikTok traffic is offset by high publication volume.

Performance Scores Sit in Mid-Range Territory

Canada e-commerce stores posted an average Lighthouse performance score of 53.46 out of 100 in the most recent month (2026-09-01). The benchmark comparison places current-month performance at 0.563000 against 0.534418 in the previous month, a change of +3%, the largest upward movement recorded among the three tracked dimensions. This mid-range result indicates that Canadian storefronts satisfy roughly half of the criteria Lighthouse evaluates, with the remaining headroom concentrated in rendering and loading behaviour. The +3% gain suggests that recent front-end optimisation work is producing a measurable effect at the segment level, though the absolute score still sits well below the top of the scale. For merchandising and development teams, a score in the low fifties usually translates into slower first contentful paint and higher interaction latency, both of which carry direct consequences for conversion. The direction of travel is positive, but the base remains low.

SEO Remains the Strongest Dimension

The average Lighthouse SEO score for the segment stands at 92.38 out of 100, by far the highest of the measured dimensions. The benchmark data records a move from 0.923925 in the previous month to 0.914839 in the current month, a change of -1%. That slight retreat matters because SEO had been the segment's most stable strength: even after the decline, the SEO score remains far above the performance figure. For Canadian e-commerce operators, the pattern suggests that the technical foundations of search visibility, including crawlability, metadata and structured markup, are largely in place, and that the -1% shift is more likely to reflect minor regressions in a subset of stores than a broad deterioration across the segment. The gap between an SEO score of 92.38 and a performance score of 53.46 also highlights an imbalance: the pages are discoverable, but the experience once a visitor arrives is not yet matching that standard.

Accessibility Improves Alongside Performance

Accessibility recorded a current-month score of 0.876452 against 0.869681 in the previous month, a change of +1%, which places it at 87.65 on the same 100-point scale used elsewhere in this report. That position sits between the strong SEO result and the weaker performance score. The combination of a +3% gain in performance and a +1% gain in accessibility, set against a -1% movement in SEO, points to a segment currently investing in front-end experience rather than in search-facing fundamentals. Because accessibility sits close to the SEO level, the two dimensions together form a fairly consistent upper tier, while performance remains the clear outlier in the lower range. The +1% accessibility improvement is modest, but it is meaningful for a segment where compliance expectations continue to tighten. Tracking whether the performance gain of +3% persists into future months will be key to judging whether the current movement is a durable trend or a single-month fluctuation.