Shipping on .com as a Canadian seller
Summary: inook30 is seeking advice on continuing to sell on the .com marketplace while living in Canada, particularly regarding shipping options to keep rates low for U.S. buyers. They have found that local options such as USPS or cross-border shippers like ChitChats aren't feasible due to distance and cost. byto253 suggests using Canada Post and other services like Sendle for better rates, noting the importance of flat-rate shipping. pjcdn2005 advises looking into eBay's discounted rates and considers the need for a Canadian bank account for processing payments. recped asks about location and shipping details, suggesting that local delivery services might not be cost-effective. inook30 expresses concerns about potentially needing to create a new eBay ID and losing previous seller feedback.
This is my last attempt to find an answer to my question. Yes I have watched video explaining this and read threads talking about this but non applies 100% to my situation. I hope I’ll find good infos here. So thanks in advance.
I have been selling on .com for years while living in the USA. I am now back into my home country (Canada) and I want to continue selling on .com. I understand I could just used my home address here in Québec but figured I’d prefer to keep offering cheaper rates to the US buyers.
So, I read crossing the borders myself to get to the closest USPS (a 75 miles road trip) isn’t an option. Any thoughts of that as of July 2024?
Then, I hear about Cross Border Shippers. Oh what I great idea!!! But while looking into it some more (a lot more!!!) I figured the 2 closest companies from me are in Montréal (around 190 miles roadtrip). In my opinion there has to be a better option. While Chit Chats offers a pick up option I can’t seem to find prices before I sign up. And if I go to the pick up company’s website it’s over 50$ to ship a 5lbs box to the Chit Chats branch. I’m thinking there might be a discount if done through Chit Chats but still probably not that much to make it worth it!!!
So here you go!!! I’m lost. I don’t want to close my store but would like to be able to make money out of it not spend all the profits on shipping costs.
Any suggestions, ideas, respectful and constructive comments are welcome.
recped
·2 years agoWhere exactly are you located in Quebec, what sort of volume do you think you will have and what is the size/weight of the average order.
Services from companies like ChitChats, Stallion or others will get you fast deliveries to the US, in most cases it's at lower cost but the differences vs Canada Post can be quite small depending of what you are shipping. If you can use USPS Media Mail or make use of Ground Advantage Cubic rates the savings can be significant.
inook30
OP2 years agoI am located in Sherbrooke. Like I mentioned in the original post ChitChats and Stallion are options I would go with but they are 306km away from me (back and forth). So I’m not sure they are worth it if I need to add an other costs to have the items delivered to them especially on weeks let say that I sell less items and only have a few packages to ship.
As for the volume it’s not big and the average weight I’d say is less than 5kg.
byto253
·2 years agoIf you don't have close access to the US border and places like Chitchats to be feasible, you will likely need to work with Canada Post rates, and perhaps UPS/Fedex. Buying labels through eBay provides a decent discount versus over the counter. If buying through Canada Post, go to a postal outlet and get a free Small Business care, which gives a small discount. There really is no magic bullet to get the rates down much more than that if you don't have access to a Chitchats type business.
The big positive with Canada Post is that for packages under 2KG, they ship flat rate to anywhere in the US including Hawaii, Alaska, and territores like Guam and PR with US Tracked Packet or Small Packet (untracked). The difference between Tracked and Small Packet is minimal so most folks go with Tracked.
As an example, these are the current rates for Tracked Packet - the first column is grams and kilograms, the 2nd column is the total rate in CDN$. The rates fluctuate a bit every month.
When you sell to the US from Canada on .com, you do not have the option to have calculated shipping using Canadian shippers as that only works for shippers based in the US, so you need to put in a fixed shipping amount. This is why the Tracked packet flat rate is so important.
For chitchats, you can get price estimates without signing in here:
https://chitchats.com/pricing I find that they are good for small light items, and for some larger heavy items. Really large and heavy parcels, they can be more expensive than Canada Post. If you are shipping items to Chitchats from out of town, I would check the rates from Sendle Canada as they will ship up to 5 KG, 25L for $12.65 regionally to $17.90 nationally, depending on location. https://try.sendle.com/en-ca/pricing If Sendle serves your area, they also pick up at your door as they use ICS courier.
You can also check out a service like https://www.netparcel.com/home.action which basically has large corporate volume rates with a number of shippers so similar to Sendle. I think there are some other cross border companies for just Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver but I am not familiar with them - which if you were going to ship to Chitchats, they could be an option.
Something to consider if you are coming back to Canada and shipping from a Canadian location, is your Managed Payments bank account. I assume that you are living in the US so have a US bank account. When Managed Payments was implemented we had to specifically have a chequing account to receive payouts that was with a Canadian Bank. Even if we chose to receive US$, it had to be a Canadian Bank. I don't know if that will be an issue if you change your location address to Canada.
inook30
OP2 years agoThanks so much for all the infos. I will for sure look at the Sendel and Netparcel websites. They are new companies to me.
And thank you so much for the bank info. Yes I do have a US bank account. So I’ll need to open a US account in a Canadian bank if I want to be paid in US still???
pjcdn2005
·2 years agoRight now Tracked Packet is even less epxensive than what @byto253 shows. I just bought a label for a 150 gr package to the US for C$8.07. You can only see those rates on eBay. If you look at them on the Canada Post website they will be higher.
eBay also has an expedited lite service for packages up to 200 gr. within Canada. There is a size limit on those.
Since this ID was originally registered on the US site you may have to start a new ID to strt selling as a Canadian even if you list on .com. When eBay changed from Paypal to Manage Payments I think that the ability to change countries disappeared.
You would need a either need a $US chequing account at a Canadian bank to register as a Canadian seller if you want to be paid in $US. I list on both sites so my payout is in $C so anything I sell on .com in $US gets converted o Canadian dollars before it get puts in my account. It is definitely an added expense.
inook30
OP2 years agoI didn’t realize I would need to start a new ID on the Canadian site. How would that work after I do? I just go on .com and sign in with the new CDN ID? Will I loose all my feedbacks?
And if I open a US checking account at BNC I would be able to get the payouts in USD?
Ouf! Not the easiest to switch! 😉
mrdutch1001
·2 years agonew ID =starting at 0...just like any new seller and/or new account...start out point =0 feedback, seller restrictions and/or limits may apply