Canadian shoppers are more likely than consumers in other markets to complete their purchases in-store, but tapping into the digital parts of their purchase journey comes with significant benefits – especially when improving ROI on promotional marketing.

That’s according to a report by digital technology company Eagle Eye, which polled 4,013 consumers in Canada, Australia, the U.K. and the U.S., to better understand and compare their shopping habits across channels.

While conventional stores and websites are still the most popular places to visit pre-purchase, Canadian consumers are more likely to use a ratings and review website (33%) or social network (31%) before buying than consumers in other regions surveyed. However, Canadians are also far more likely (77%) to complete the researched purchase in-store than online. Overall, consumers who use a mix of channels to complete purchases (rather than just one) spend 4% on in-store purchases and 10% more on online purchases.

In the last two weeks before the survey, 65% of Canadians collected or used loyalty points, only slightly behind Australians (66%) and far ahead of consumers in the U.S. (44%). While most Canadians prefer to receive promotional offers by email (77%, well ahead of other regions), they are also more likely to use a promotion delivered through a loyalty program app, with 27% saying they favour the app versus 23% of Australians, 17% of Americans and 16% of those in the U.K.

Regardless of delivery method, the most important factor in whether they use a promotion (according to 64% of Canadian consumers) was relevancy (i.e. whether it is for a product they want), ahead of factors such as how much savings was offered, the utility of the product, timeliness of the offer and convenience. That’s more consumers than in any other region, besides the U.S. The report points out that this shows the importance of digitizing the customer journey: the more consumers interact with a brand through digital channels, the more data about their needs and behaviour can be collected and used to create more relevant promotions that will deliver higher ROI.

On a similar note, 24% of Canadian consumers say they are more likely to act on promotions that are personalized, second again only to consumers in the U.S. A personalized promotion is also almost as likely to induce a spontaneous purchase among Canadian shoppers as receiving a reward for purchase frequency, and well ahead of things like rewards for social media engagement, location-targeted ads and “buy today”-style offers.