Julie Lacalamita

This paper analyzes the spatial distribution of online and in-store credit card purchases of customers belonging to a major Canadian retailer living within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Ontario. The research determines spatial relationships among geographic areas with certain levels of internet and in-store sales and other spatial variables (such as levels of commercial concentrations, transportation accessibility and urban development). The study seeks to determine patterns amongst customers and overall residents in terms of age and income within certain regions of the GTA (such as downtown, inner city, inner suburbs and outer suburbs). Other variables included in the studied dataset are transaction dollar amounts, customer age and merchant category types, which were spatially compared. Temporal changes within the data were also analyzed between the months of October, November and December of 2010, 2011 and 2012, representing a peak sales period prior to the holiday season. Results indicate that there are spatial variations of online and offline credit card transactions over the years within the different zones of the study area. These variations also occur for credit card customers belonging to different age categories. Online sales have grown at a faster pace than offline transactions, especially for young adult consumers.