e -Brief

In the case of e-commerce, this refers to the buying and selling of retail products through the internet. [...] The rise of e-commerce has also highlighted the demand for “omnichannel” retail as consumers get used to the convenience of different modes of buying, whether over multiple electronic marketplaces and websites, from anywhere online via a phone or laptop, or in a brick and mortar store. [...] One can get a sense of the competition in that space by noting that the market capitalization of Shopify went from five percent of Amazon’s in December 2019 just prior to the pandemic, to almost 11 percent in the fall of 2021.4 4 In the context of the rapid development of new application of digital technology, such signals from the market about emerging competitors could help competition authoriti. [...] Ultimately, the question is whether the interests of the owners of the marketplace themselves are opposed to those of marketplace participants, and in turn, whether the latter have other choices in connecting with their potential customers or suppliers. [...] Given the increasing accessibility of digital tools and the growth of omnichannel retail, including an increasing panoply of tools and partnerships for manufacturers and brands who wish to sell directly to customers in order to recapture margins lost to wholesalers, Canadian sellers arguably face fewer and fewer obstacles in reaching consumers.