A new study of the online behavior, attitudes and investing habits of Canadian investors by Gomez Canada indicates that online mutual fund investing.will be the next major area of growth.

The study, due out in October, anticipates more than 900,000, or 16% of Canadian online investors will purchase mutual funds online in the next year. It also found that most institutional Web sites have not yet integrated advisors into their web offerings to anticipate that shift in investor behaviour.

“Most sites, if not all, fail to support the advisor on communication and information. The advisor’s role is not integrated enough into the online offer,” says Don Rolfe, managing director of Gomez Canada.

When it comes to integration, he says there is a need to better incorporate as 40% of Canadian online investors use advisors. Gomez estimates that number will rise to 53% within a year. In Canada, he says, 61% of investors are life-goal planners, and therefore advice oriented. “Six in 10 want advice.”

Of those investors online, Gomez research found nearly half use an independent financial advisor and 40.4% use advisors from a full-service brokerage. According to the study only 24.5% of investors with financial advisors want them to manage the entire process, while 47.3% want to participate in the process.

But contrary to consumers’ desire for objectivity, choice and advice, Gomez found that the primary focus of company Web sites is usually on product rather than solutions.

In the last six months, nearly 30% of active online investors purchased mutual funds online, and the highest number of trades (40.9%) were done through online brokerages. Of those surveyed, 60.8% said convenience was their primary reason, and 15.4% said it was a move towards consolidation. According to Gomez consumer research, more than 70% of online buyers abandon a shopping cart, and 21.3% do because the sites are not fast enough.

While active online investors only make up less than 3% of the online adult population, Rolfe says online mutual fund investing among life-goal planners (60.2% of the population) will be the next major growth area. “Most people have not recognized it yet,” he says.