Online sales have been rising in Canada for five years straight although it still represents only a small fraction of the overall economy.

The country registered a total online sales of almost 50 billion Canadian dollars (44 billion U.S. dollars) in 2006, a 40 percent surge from the previous year, national agency Statistics Canada reported Friday.

But e-commerce accounted for only slightly over one percent of total retail sales and was still mostly conducted between businesses, according to the "2006 Survey of Electronic Commerce and Technology."

Business-to-business transactions accounted for 68 percent of all online sales.

Retail trailed the wholesale trade, manufacturing and transportation and warehousing sectors in online sales, all of which conducted the bulk of their online transactions between firms, the report said.

Retail trade was one of the fastest-growing sectors, with sales of goods and services online worth 4.7 billion Canadian dollars (4. 1 billion U.S. dollars), with more than 15 percent of firms selling their products online, up from only 10 percent in 2005.

The report also found that retailers are changing their attitudes about what kind of products can be sold online. In 2005, 50 percent of retailers that used the Internet claimed their goods or services did not lend themselves to internet transactions. That number had fallen to 39 percent a year later.

The number of Canadian retailers with websites also increased to 46 percent from 42 percent.