Shipping in Canada

[Former_Member]

So I am new here on etsy. I have a small soap-making business, but I am finding it hard to sell in an online market because of the high shipping rates. I was wondering what everyone does to combat the crazy shipping rates that Canada has in order to offer cheaper shipping to customers. Is there a secret to this? What postal service do you think is best? Is the only cheap shipping method via letter mail?

Thanks for help in advance!

[Former_Member]

Do you have a Canada Post Venture card? It is free and saves you 5% on parcel shipping. Not much but helps. You can get a brochure at any postal outlet.
Grace

[Former_Member]

I don't think there is much to do.

If you're selling small item - then you've got no choice but to use Canada Post (carrier service are just too pricey for small package). Once that choice has been made for you, then you've got to abide by their pricing and rules.

The venture card is a good idea... but the discount only applies to parcels. If you're shipping letterpost or small packet - you don't get that discount and you don't accumulate points.

You can also bundle your shipping - if you spend more than 10$ (I think) in one go, you don't pay taxes.

But that's about it.
The only other trick I can think of is not "charging" the full shipping price (I mean under the shipping cost here on etsy)... just to make my listing more "attractive" compared to other US sellers that don't charge much on shipping.

Yeah, it's included in my item price and I'll pay fees on it... but I think it does bring me more sales than if I was setting the real shipping price :)

[Former_Member]

hmm thanks for the input! I do have the venture one and it does not help much. Shipping costs twice as much as my soaps do which is ridiculous. I was thinking of adding the shipping costs to my soap prices but they cannot change much because they are already a standard price for soap.

[SticksnStone]

Congrats on your shop:-)

I have personally found shipping one of the hardest parts of the Etsy/ online experience. Unfortunately my shipping prices are expensive for my items. I ship framed stone artwork- heavy and breakable so lots of packaging!!! My shipping costs are all $20-$40 and I pay all shipping supplies out of pocket. Trying to balance competitive pricing while covering my costs has been a learning curve. But that's part of the journey I guess:-)

I was also disappointed to discover that Canada Post does NOT cover breakables/ ceramics/ glass, so any damages occurred besides lost or theft and we're on our own.

All this said, I think you can only do what you can- package professionally, offer competitive pricing, adjust along the way, and have fun:-)

All the best to you and good luck! :-)
Angie
P.S. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

[Former_Member]

Thanks for the tips Angie! That is actually a decent price for shipping considering your items are heavy! :) I may have to lower my prices or knock a few dollars off my shipping at my own cost

[Former_Member]

Canada Post Venture One is great for small business shipping, good pricing and prompt, next day delivery. But I would not use Canada Post to ship breakables such as glass candle jars, every order of these that I've shipped via Canada Post has had at least one breakage. Instead use UPS, Fedex or Canpar, it is worth shopping around to find a decent shipping broker as prices vary greatly between businesses.
In order to cover shipping costs try tiered pricing, Under $20 order is $10 shipping, for example, with over $50 order free shipping. It will encourage larger orders.

Good luck

[Splurge]

Would it be feasible to change the shape of your soaps so that they are larger but thinner? Not sure if that would work but with a thinner soap you might be able to get through the 2cm 'slot of doom' for cheaper shipping.

[Former_Member]

In Montreal, we have this option:

http://viaus.ca/

Via US trucks packages across the border to the US and mails from there for about half the price of Canada Post. It is legal. There may be similar companies in other Canadian cities.

[Former_Member]

Thanks. I do not ship anything extremely breakable so I think I am okay on that front....I cannot get my soaps too tall/large and thin because of my molds...they could also break easily in letter shipping...so I may only offer that cheap shipping with less decorative soaps

[Former_Member]

I also am finding shipping crazy. My items r fairly
Large so shipping is extremely high & too big to
Use canada post, I use fedex for larger pieces.
If anyone knows of a more reasonable way please
Let me know. It is twice as much to send to states.
Also , I was not too sure where on my listing to
Include appr. Shipping or decide with customer
On shipping costs after they have purchased items.
Shipping costs vary from place to place, do you just
Have flat rate? I am new at all this.
Thanks Nancy

[Former_Member]

Under the listing you just add the flat rate...I went in to the post office and got some average rates that I could post. :)

[Former_Member]

Thanks so much !!

[AltheasDollHouse]

I find shipping costs very expensive and outrageous when shipping internationally with tracking number. I wonder sometimes if the cost of shipping items turn off potential customers. I could ship a lot cheaper if I opt to go without a tracking number but I feel that this is necessary in order to confirm delivery.

[SecretStorageBooks]

For those Canadian sellers that sell a larger volume, check out a CGTA membership (Canadian Gift and Tableware Association www.cgta.org) it costs about $325 per year, but you get fabulous discounts for CANPAR, FEDEX (Ground and express) and DHL as well as other packages such as credit card processing. For me, the savings on shipping (up to 40%) have paid for the membership over and over. For instance DHL AIR to ship a 500g parcel to the US in 2 days (with tracking) only costs around $25.

For those whose majority of shipping is under 1kg to the USA, there's nothing much to do but suck it up - I ship Small Packet Airmail - no insurance. It's the cheapest there is.

Find out from Canada Post how much you need to ship in a year to get a discount. I ship a fair bit and get a discount off the Venture One rates - not much, but every little bit helps!! It's on a yearly contract basis.

I agree that shipping can make or break the profit levels!

[Former_Member]

Hi everyone. I use a service through my Costco membership called emergeIT. They like Purolator, FedEx and UPS and you always have a choice of price points and delivery times. I like it because they pick up from my door, always include a tracking number, and have fantastic customer service. They do not have a quota so the discount is per package rather than by volume. The transit times have been very reliable too.

I have also found that customers are more comfortable with paying a bit more for an item in my shop than paying more for shipping so I re-jigged my prices a bit so that I do not lose on shipping.

[Former_Member]

Thanks! I am going to look in to that Costco shipping since I have a membership. Do you find it cheaper overall or similar to Canada post?

I'm going to do the same with my prices. Thanks!

[PerfectVintageFlea]

I have also noticed that shipping rates for within Canada seem to have gone waay up lately, am I crazy? It costs me less to ship something to Australia than within Canada with Canada Post! Anyone else notice this?

[Former_Member]

Nope that makes sense...they told me to send something to the U.S it was cheaper than sending it 15 minutes down the road....ha!

[Former_Member]

I'm only recouping about 60% of m y shipping costs. I make cards. No one wants to pay shipping costs equal to the card costs. I have a venture one, but it's only good for parcels. I've only gotten to use it about 5 times in 3 years.

"For those whose majority of shipping is under 1kg to the USA, there's nothing much to do but suck it up - I ship Small Packet Airmail - no insurance. It's the cheapest there is."
-- this is me.

QUESTION:
How do you get Paypal labels to work? The hardest part is weight for me. What kind of scale do you guys use? Where did you get it?

[Former_Member]

I just adjusted all my prices for my crocheted hats on my Etsy shop. This morning, I went to mail a knitted hat within Canada. Because it was bulky and had pompoms, although I had put it in a 8.5 X 11 " Tyvek envelope, it did not fit in the "slot of doom" so I ended up paying 10.60$ to ship within my own province a very light hat....grrrr!

As suggested, I increased the price of the item as well as the shipping charges instead of putting it all in the shipping fees.

I'm actually brainstorming with myself to find products that can "for sure" be shipped in an envelope and require less shipping.

I have also noticed that shipping far away is more economical than shipping within Canada. It is very weird! So, I end up making more profits when shipping to Paris, France than to Ottawa...go figure!?!

[Former_Member]

In response to where to buy a shipping scale, I bought a reasonably priced one from Staples for about $40. (http://m.staples.ca/en/DYMO-KC20-Heavy-Duty-Package-Scale/product_12324_2-CA_1_20001) It was the cheapest I could find and although it's not digital it works perfectly. I needed a heavy duty one for my large heavier items but I think they might have one for about the same price that goes up to 7lbs. For smaller letter/packet sized parcels I've either guessed or used a jewellery scale which can also be relatively cheap. Hope that helps.

The one thing I like about creating my shipping labels through PayPal is that there is also an additional discount for shipping via Canada Post. Sometimes I save an additional $4-5, particularly to the US!

[Former_Member]

I found it hard to use Paypal because it constantly gives me errors if everything is not precise..especially the measurements...so I figured it was better to let the pros do it at the post office. :/ Would be nice to get the discounts though.

[EightMileVintage]

I bought an electronic kitchen scale at Caynes in Toronto. They have an online store. Really any kitchen scale will do the trick. If you are shipping large parcels, you want to make sure that you will be able to see the read-out under your package or that the scale has a hold button to keep the read-out when the package is removed.

If you use Paypal shipping, you can get as much as 18% off some Canadian and US shipping rates, so I'd encourage everyone to check into it.

There is a Canadian shipping thread in the International team that is managed by an employee of Canada Post and has tons of shipping help. It's long but someone did an off-site summary that is helpful and you'll find the reference to it in the thread.


https://www.etsy.com/teams/7654/etsy-international/discuss/6779956/

Jaime, I see that you are in the Toronto area. A similar service to the one mentioned in Montreal is Chitchatsexpress in Markham and Mississauga. I've been using them since June and have been able to reduce my shipping costs dramatically.

[Former_Member]

Luckily I sell photographic prints so I can ship most things via Letter Post, which keeps costs down. I just marked up my prints by the maximum amount shipping has cost me for each print and then offer "free worldwide shipping" so people will hopefully be less scared to buy from me (as 99% of my sales have been to U.S. customers).

It is so frustrating that Canada Post rates keep us from being able to be more competitive in the global marketplace compared to the U.S. Alas I live a little too far from Toronto to take advantage of the Chitchatexpress service at the moment...if I had a higher sales volume to make up for the cost to drive there I would start using them though!