In what looks to be an unabashed plug of Verified by Visa, the payments industry behemoth recently polled online shopping plans of Canadiens and found the following:

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Aug 27, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX)

Almost one-third of Canadians in need of books, computers and back-to-school supplies will avoid the hustle and bustle of traditional shops in favour of the World Wide Web this year.

According to an August 2008 survey commissioned by Visa Canada(i), 13 percent of Canadians are planning to shop online between now and Labour Day and, of those, 40 percent plan to spend more online than in the same period last year.

With the average estimated online spend before Labour Day totalling $881, survey respondents said they were turning to the Internet because of its convenience (41 percent), better prices (41 percent) and superior selection than brick-and-mortar retailers (31 percent).


While restocking backpacks and lockers is one reason to turn to the computer, Canadians shopping online also planned to purchase travel (45 percent), computers or electronics (41 percent) as well as fall and winter clothing (32 percent).

"It's interesting to see the variety of goods Canadians plan to buy online," said Zack Fuerstenberg, Director, New Channels, Visa Canada. "Last year when we conducted similar research, half of respondents were only planning to purchase books."

Fuerstenberg continued by pointing out that the categories of merchandise most attractive to online shoppers are mirrored by the types of merchants that participate in the Verified by Visa(R) program. "Air Canada, Dell, Best Buy, Future Shop, West Jet, Via Rail, Telus and Aldo are all participating in the program along with 2,000 other participating Canadian merchants."

The Verified by Visa service, which is supported by Visa-issuing financial institutions and participating merchants, works through the use of a personal password and helps ensure that purchases made online with a Visa(R) card are made by the actual cardholder. Free for consumers, the Verified by Visa program has been adopted by more than 200,000 merchants and 378 million Visa cardholders around the world. Canadian Visa cardholders can sign up for this program at their Visa card issuer's website, through visa.ca or when shopping at participating merchant websites.

The Verified by Visa service is just one of Visa's multiple layers of security in the eCommerce channel. Another layer that helps protect online merchants and cardholders shopping via the Web is the "three-digit code," or CVV2, which is the number printed on the signature panel on the back of a Visa card. It helps to prove to the merchant that the cardholder has the card in his or her possession when ordering online or over the phone. AVS, or the Address Verification Service, helps ensure that the person making a purchase with a Visa card is the same person who receives the Visa card's monthly statement. Merchants begin the process by matching the address provided by the cardholder during check-out to the billing address the Visa card issuer has on file.

(i)For the Visa Back-to-School Shopping Survey, a total of 1005 respondents were interviewed during the period between August 6th - 10th, 2008. The margin of error is +/-3.09% at 95%.