According to this, only 41 percent of Canadian small businesses have their own website.

"Consequently they may be missing lucrative opportunities as Canadians come to rely on the Internet to help them make buying decisions, the CIRA suggests. Interestingly, bigger businesses aren't faring much better: just 45 percent of Canadian businesses are online."

"Why does it matter? Well, for example, 74 percent of Canadians reported that they search online, and compare goods and services, before committing to a purchase. With poor choice locally, two out of every three dollars Canadians spend online go south of the border, and we lag the US and the UK in terms of the percentage of our retail economy that is online (three per cent, versus seven and 23 percent, respectively)."

"The internet is in many ways a champion of freedom and defined by accessibility. But in Canada a great digital divide persists where lower-income households remain without internet, another issued tackled by the newly released 2014 CIRA Factbook."

"Only 62 percent of Canadians in the lowest income quartile have Internet access, compared with 95 percent of Canadians in the highest income quartile. This divide is also regional, the CIRA says, with British Columbia and Alberta enjoying the highest penetration rates, at around 86 percent, and Nunavut the lowest, at 27 percent."

"The good news is, after years of steady decline in international rankings, Canada saw significant gains in both the speed and price competitiveness of Internet service over the past year."

"Nearly 87 per cent of Canadian households overall are connected to the Internet, compared with 80 per cent in 2010, putting Canada 16th in the world and second among the G8 nations, just behind the UK."

Source GetElastic.com[/caption]

According to this, DHL, a global company in the logistics industry has announced its partnership with the Nigerian social commerce platform 3AL.

"The partnership, which is part of DHL`s contribution to the evolving ecommerce industry, is a result of the extension of broadband access availability and mobile data which grows in reliability and affordability, and of more people in Sub-Saharan Africa choosing to shop online."

"3AL allows businesses to communicate directly with existing and potential clients in a virtual community, post their various products and services to their market and close a sale. The platform is a business community which provides a platform for individuals and corporations to interface, network and exchange goods and services promoting retail through interactivity and convenience."

"The platform has been integrated with a dynamic payment settlement solution in partnership with a financial institution, and it offers a subscriber payment module. The payment solution is currently integrated with all switches recognised in Nigeria, which means it accepts all the credit and debit cards issued in the country. Under the terms of the agreement, DHL will provide courier services and, at the same time, ensure security, tracking, signature, specialization and delivery of items ordered by the customers."

According to this, ReD, a global provider of fraud prevention and payment services, and Alpha Payments Cloud, (APC) a cloud-based payments solution provider, have partnered to support acquirers and merchants in their ecommerce growth.

"As a result of the alliance, Alpha Payments Cloud clients across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America will gain access to ReD’s fraud prevention service, ReD Shield, via the APC Product Hub."

"According to Oliver Rajic, CEO at APC, with cross-border ecommerce already exceeding USD 300 billion, and global online trade expected to hit USD 1.4 trillion by 2015, it is important for merchants to become more agile and offer international services, in order to remain competitive and drive continued revenue growth."

"ReD Shield is a fraud prevention solution that includes proprietary screening databases, a dynamic rules engine, pattern recognition software, patented PRISM neural network technology, BIN identification, “gibberish” filters, an analytical engine and IP geo-location technology. ReD Shield uses an unlimited number of transaction variables and a global database of ‘hot’ cards to detect and prevent online fraud across the retail, banking, travel, gaming, telecom and broader ecommerce sectors."

According to this, Ecommerce Europe’s President, François Momboisse, addressed the European Commission and Council to propose a one-stop-shop for better policy coordination and asked for an integrated perspective on key business factors in the ecommerce industry.

"Ecommerce Europe, in order to get rid of fragmentation and separation, proposes the creation of a one-stop-shop for ecommerce by having an integrated and coherent approach covering consumer trust, security, privacy, online payments, e-logistics and sustainability. In the following months Ecommerce Europe will outline its suggestions to facilitate the establishment of a one-stop-shop on these five key elements for the industry."

"Last year, the e-commerce industry in Europe had a total turnover of EUR 358 billion and it was one of the few industries that grew with double digits. It has huge potential for further growth and creating jobs in Europe. However going cross-border is still a big challenge for web shops in Europe today. With the one-stop-shop Ecommerce Europe asks the European Commission for better policy coordination for online sales issues. Today, a patchwork of policies is spread over various departments of the Commission: They are all dealing with different aspects of our business. A one-stop-shop would be a viable solution for merchants and policy makers.”

“It is clear that the e-commerce market is a major opportunity for years to come. The next President of the European Commission must be a digital President. Digital needs to be his or her priorityand that of every other member of the College.”