Selling to Canada from the UK

oilpure
Community Member

Hello, 

 

I have a business that sells items in the UK. If it's the same as UK seller forums, I best not link to my products.

 

We sell a lot and it's a good business. 

We get lots of enquiries from Canada and USA for our products, so we started using Airmail to ship them. 

However, the time it takes for these low value items to get to Canada and USA was causing defects for us. So we stopped, as it was affecting our UK ebay account and wasn't worth the hassle.

 

The price of postage was similar to the price of the item, the items took too long to get there.

So now we just charge tracked post on our items. We now rarely get purchases but still many enquiries. We are considering stopping this service too. 

 

I thought I'd come to this forum to ask if anyone knows a solution around this. I need something easy for us and something that will allow our products to sell in USA and Canada. Ideas I have had are: some kind of remote postal system, drop shipping, franchise or a hub. 

Has anyone been involved in this or got experience?

 

Furthermore, I'm not in it to make millions but if there is a solution whereby we get 10% markup on our wholesale price, then I would see that as worthwhile.

 

Finally, our items go 'Large Letter' they are 24mm in depth for each parcel. In the UK that translates as an item that can be posted at £0.72 instead of £2.50 parcel rate. Is there a similar system in Canada?

 

Thanks in advance,

Adele

 

 

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Selling to Canada from the UK

oilpure
Community Member
p.s. we are the manufacturer of the products, so in case anyone was wandering why I don't source in Canada and ship that way. Looking forward to ideas.
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Selling to Canada from the UK

As far as I know there is no services that allow you to keep your items at a warehouse here and have them sent out. Amazon does have that in the U.S. (perhaps in Canada too) but ebay does not. I have heard that they are doing something like that in the U.S. for Asian sellers...I don't know if sellers in other countries will be able to use it.

 

Canadians also have the problem of U.S. buyers and those in other countries of expecting an item to arrive as quickly as a domestic purchase. I always write my buyers once I have mailed the item to give them a realistic arrival time and to give them a subtle reminder that it is a cross border transaction.

 

I found one item listed on the UK site under the ID you are using today but there is no shipping cost or service for outside of the UK which means it isn't visible at all on .ca or .com.

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Selling to Canada from the UK

Thank you for your advice. 

 

The item I have listed is similar (cosmetics) but this is not the account I use for business. 

 

I have since posting, looked at franchise and it's costly to set up. 

Having a delivery method with The River is too expensive as they are catered toward parcels and not low value items. 

 

I am glad you told me about cross border delivery from Canada to USA, I really thought there would be a simple solution for that. 

 

Based on your suggestions and what I have found, it might be best to drop ship or enable someone to sell our products in Canada, giving them all our information and all our products in return for a percentage of sale. 

I think this would work best, it's less costly outlay for us to set up and for the person. It results in a small profit and a solution for us and it will give whoever works on it a good income. 

 

Do you know of any small business forums or sites that would help me advertise for someone like this?

Obviously, if there is anyone who reads this then do also get in touch. 

 

Thanks and we have a few business forums in the UK, so maybe someone knows of a popular one in Canada and USA. 

 

 

 

 

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Selling to Canada from the UK

Hello, 

 

Interestingly, I am in almost precisely the same position as you, trying to sell my own products from Canada to U.K. (and to a lesser extent Europe, Australia and NZ).  I design and produce a line of historical sewing patterns. Like you, my biggest challenge in selling to the U.K. and beyond has been shipping a relatively low cost item (generally under $20) by air so that it arrives within a reasonable timeframe (to avoid defects or cases due to late receipt).  

 

Canadian postal services are such that, although most of my items qualify for letter mail within Canada due to size and thickness (max. 38x27x2cm), the equivalent service I have to use outside Canada is more expensive than lettermail.  Fortunately, Canada Post still has fairly reasonably-priced small air parcel rates to the U.S., but the small air parcel rates to the U.K. and elsewhere are horrendous.  They simply aren't justifiable for most of my products, given the item prices.  

 

Again, luckily, as a Canadian with most of my customer base in the U.S., the air parcel rates are still viable to any location there.  However, I've more or less given up on international sales.  I now simply quote the actual international air parcel rate in my listings, and if someone is really keen on buying, they'll pay the shipping.  Since my patterns are  unique in the world, occasionally an overseas buyer will be willing to pay the shipping to get exactly what they want.  Still, postal rates have pretty much killed my international business (we had a whopping 26% increase in international air parcel rates last year). 

 

Your ideas (franchising and/or setting up a selling arrangement with another eBay seller) are precisely what I had considered.  I've had a couple of U.S. pattern sellers contact me about what was effectively a consignment arrangement, and I turned them down because I don't need to create my own competition in the U.S.  I also had a European pattern seller ask the same thing, but the costs and complications involved simply didn't seem worth the likely benefits.  

 

However, you're in a different situation than I, since I already have easy access to 90% of my buyers (in the U.S.).  I would say that finding a reliable, long-term eBay seller with an excellent eBay seller record who lists products similar (but not identical) to yours in Canada and/or the U.S., and entering into an agreement to have that seller list and sell your products would be workable.  That is, as long as there is enough margin in your products, after allowing for a bulk shipment, to provide both you and your proxy seller with a reasonable profit.  

 

You will also of course want to have some sort of formal written agreement in place, however simple, to specify the terms of the arrangement and to protect your trademark or any proprietary content of your products.  

 

You might want to start with a Canadian eBay seller, since we have good access to both the U.S. and Canadian markets.  Many U.S. sellers are now using the GSP (Global Shipping Programme), which has turned off a lot of Canadian buyers due to higher shipping and tax costs of goods sold from the United States. 

 

I am actually aware of one experienced and very knowledgeable Canadian eBay seller who specializes in selling various commercial cosmetics.  I'll send her a personal message with a link to this discussion thread, in case she may be interested in making contact with you.  I would give you her ID, but I don't want to presume what her interest may be.  I'll let her make that decision.  At worst, she may have some further suggestions if she does decide to respond.  

 

In general, unless you have a trusted friend or relative in Canada who has experience in selling on eBay, a sort of "consignment" or "proxy" set-up is probably your best bet.  As you say, franchises can be very costly, and are really only viable if you can guarantee your franchisee a sufficiently high level of product supply and turnover.  

 

Best of luck, and cheers! 

 

 

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Selling to Canada from the UK

To sell in the UK ebay is a good investment. There are more customers and sales on ebay.co.uk than the rest of al the other european countries combined. So it's worth looking at the uk one first, especially when you consider translation issues on the other sites. 

 

I am keen to avoid global shipping program, it over charges and does not provide a large letter priced service. 

 

I see problems already. Our items are 23mm in height, which fall just within Royal Mails Large letter size of 25mm maximum. 

Yet I see in Canada the maximum is 20mm (2cm). Which means it's not going to be worth the postage costs. A real shame that Canadian post has only 2cm as large letter. 

 

I think the best idea for yourself is to find a friend in the UK (or friend of a friend), but you'd have to have a good profit margin (like you say) and it would need to be a viable long term business. 

 

Well, thats that. Without large letter, then our low value products wont make much money. 🙂

It's made me worry that if Royal Mail ever change the size we would be out of business. 

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Selling to Canada from the UK

Yes, that 2.0cm thickness limit has been a very sore spot for eBay sellers for a long time.  At least beyond 2.0cm, it's still relatively reasonable for a Canadian to ship to the U.S.  

 

However, the moment you go over the 2.0cm within Canada, you're looking at ridiculously high parcel rates -- and those rates vary depending on destination.  With a country the size of Canada, for someone like me to ship anything larger than oversize letter mail from where I am in Nova Scotia (on the east coast) to, say, Whitehorse, Yukon (in the far northwest), well, it's hardly worth it for anything under $50.  Certainly buyers won't like the shipping quotes they'd see. 

 

As far as exposure in the U.K. goes for my products, I do occasionally use eBay's "U.K. Visibility" feature.  Of course there is a price tag attached to that feature, but I find it does improve my exposure and sales somewhat.  

 

I made the decision to postpone any sort of third party arrangement for selling in the U.K. for the time being, and instead have moved to selling on another site where I can offer digital versions of my patterns.  They sell very well to the U.K. and beyond, obviously because there is no shipping whatsoever involved (although the EU has recently realized its error in overlooking a source of tax revenue on such sales and now charges VAT on all digitally-delivered goods sold).  It's unfortunate eBay banned such sales, because they can work beautifully if handled properly. 

 

Cheers from Canada, and best of luck with your products! 

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