Shipping with Chit Chats
Summary: gauld seeks advice on shipping options amid a Canada Post strike, considering Chit Chats as an alternative for smaller items typically sent letterpost. They inquire about setting up Business Policies for shipping on eBay without Chit Chats being an available option and express concern about declining sales despite using promoted listings. mrdutch1001 suggests considering broader trends beyond the Canada Post strike for the sales decrease and mentions not having Chit Chats available regionally. ilikehockeyjerseys recommends exploring UPS with calculated shipping and trials of Chit Chats while noting potential limitations of these alternatives. Various participants share insights about their Chit Chats experiences, covering topics like account linking, integration issues, costs, and potential savings. Many suggest utilizing Chit Chats Select options for cheaper shipping to the US, but note logistic challenges like drop-off distances and cost comparisons to Canada Post.
I've never shipped stuff with Chit Chats before but because of the Canada post strike it seems to be the best option for me for smaller items too that I used to ship letterpost. Does anyone esle have experience uing them?
What should I use for Business Policies to set it up on Ebay for the settings for Chit Chats in it since it's not an option there now.
My sales gave almost died since the strike so I need to try to get them back. If I can provide them as a cheper alternative to Canada Post with tracking with it being down ... I might be able to get theme back.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Also i'm curious if you guys have any suggestions for ways I can really bump up my sales on here without losting too much money to do it. I went up to 12% promoted listings and it didn't help my sales.
thanks
- Bill
pattern-bookstar
·1 year agoI have been using chit chat for years, started when it 's predecessor was called "books to the border". Chit Chats is a fantastic service and use it mostly for shipping to the US. Precovid I used to ship internationally but not any more. I have shipped a few within Canada but mostly to the US. For me a chit chat drop off is 4 km, so it is not too bad. Chit Chat are extremely helpful on the phone if you have any questions.
byto253
·1 year agoIrony is driving by a CP picket line 200m from the Chitchats depot where I dropped off 10 shipments that would normally have gone CP.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·1 year ago@byto253
Further irony is that if eBay wanted to send us a Christmas card in the mail....They couldn't. 1 year I got a personalized card with a couple of eBay stickers. Maybe they will arrive by Fedex? Hmmm
recped
·1 year agoeBay once sent me some swag from San Jose, sent it via FedEx and I had to pay a brokerage fee that was definitely more than the value of the junk swag they had sent (some of which were broken!).
regs43
·1 year agoSwitched on Friday to using Chit Chats myself. only 3 people bought Hockey cards in Canada so far, as I'm charging $9-9.50 vs like $2-3.00 with Canada Post. My shipping price to the USA has not changed, usually get 1-2 US orders a day since the switch to Package rates a year or so ago.
One to SK from Ottawa, ON is $8.84 and to Toronto about $6.00. USA ones are a bit cheaper then Canada Post except I now have to drive 35 mins vs 2 block walk! Just going 1-2 times a week, depending on the volume of orders (set to 5 days handling) Sales have pretty well fallen off a cliff as expected lol
ilikehockeyjerseys
·1 year agoI think you should consider trying UPS with calculated shipping and same-day handling times. Try it for a week and see how your sales change. Maybe they will crash, but I suspect you might move a similar amount of items, and possibly some more expensive ones. You also won't have to worry about dropoffs, unless you prefer dropping off at a UPS drop spot to pickups.
If you book a UPS pickup the day before, it's less than a dollar. Calculated rates to ship things like photos or hockey cards are going to be about $11 regionally and $15-$17 across the country or to some areas of the USA. The only downside is that you will essentially lockout people in rural areas who will see $100 calculated shipping rates, but I am not sure that Chit Chats select can ship there for $10 either (I could be wrong).
My thought is that you will lose some sales, but you will gain different ones. I look at your listings, and you have a lot of giftable type items in the $20+ range. You're already pushing out the lettermail crowd having to charge Chit Chats Select rates. I could be wrong, but I think you might make more sales by offering the best possible shipping service at $11-$12 regionally or $15-$17 nationally than you would by offering generic economy shipping at not much less.
For example, one of your listings shows me Estimated between Fri, Nov 29 and Thu, Dec 19.
Where as if you changed that item to UPS Standard with same-day shipping (just set an early daily cutoff), it will show Estimated between Fri, Nov 22 and Thu, Nov 28.
I think that difference is really important this time of year if you sell the right kind of items. Someone will spend the extra $5 for the additional value of knowing that their item is coming from a known quantity (UPS) and will arrive well before Christmas.
regs43
·1 year agoI have already had a reular asking why my shipping was so high (and then never purchased lol) Since most people dont even want to pay $9-$10.00 flat rate for 1-100 items let alone $11-17. My Normal expedited lite rate was about $9-9.50 and I only used that for $50+ items, and people complained even then about shipping prices lol.
I had another ask if i would accept an offer, and I said "yes sure" and mentioned shipping would be $9.50 due to the strike and they ghosted (they have purchased before when shipping was lettermail, and offered and paid almost immediatley).
I think the high prices for shipping (and it being even more for UPS) is going to price most people out and already has. I have 6 orders (all US) in 3 days (well down from 10-15 a day, 10 CAN + 2-5 USA) and just told everyone I will go Monday to drop the mail off at Chit Chats. All 6 people are fine with that. With only 6 orders and $50.00 total in sales the 1h-1h20 min round trip is not worth it yet, maybe I get a few weekend sales. Going Monday either way.
I don't sell much that anyone HAS to have, or is going to overpay for, but I would agree, usually get some people asking in December about shipping times as they want to get for gifts. I will be keeping 5 day handling once the strike ends well in to the new year to allow for more time for lettermail to arrive, with the backlog that will happen. I usually ship daily as the post office is 1 block from my house, but the extra handling gives a buffer.
ilikehockeyjerseys
·1 year agoYou know your product and clients more than I do, so you could be right. I still would suggest you give same-day UPS shipping a try and see how it works out, but I understand why you would see it as the wrong move.
My logic is that anybody who thinks $10 is excessive for shipping is already priced out at $10 so they become irrelevant. You can't successfully market to them with $10 shipping, so why try?
Offering shipping that can take as little as 1-day is a massive point of value this time of year for a different market than the one you normally serve. If this was August, I wouldn't suggest doing the same thing. Some of the autographed pictures and stuff like that you sell, there aren't many places other than eBay to get them at low prices.
This is based on what I have noticed with items I have sold that otherwise would have gone Lettermail. Looking at the kind of stuff you sell, I think this is the time of year where you might have people who aren't regulars and who value fast shipping. I also think that you may not have a lot of competition for that market, because a lot of autograph sellers in Canada likely aren't switching to UPS rates.
I totally understand where you're coming from, because I wouldn't have agreed with this standpoint two or three weeks ago either. But I think specifically with the time of year we are in, if you sell something that isn't easily purchased on Amazon (like you do), and you can offer exceptionally fast shipping, you're going to get more sales than if you offer cheaper (but already expensive) shipping that as of a few days from now will tell people the item may not arrive for Christmas.
The only warranty this post comes with is that if you try it for a week (same-day shipping, UPS standard) and your Canadian sales tank, you can come back here and tell me how wrong I was. I suspect it will work well for you at least until Christmas.
sin-n-dex
·1 year agoI've been shipping with Chit Chats since 2016 (the last time there was talk of a strike). I used the service for USA and international packages. The Chit Chats Canada service works with Canada Post, so unless something has changed (I haven't been with them since they closed the branch in Hamilton), it's not going to help with the strike situation if you have to offer shipping within Canada. Also shipping with Chit Chats is around $10-25 for the smallest size package (the $25 would be going to Newfoundland or BC).
C.
byto253
·1 year agoChitchat Select works with couriers only, so no Canada Post required. That is the only option chitchats is offering for Canada right now. So chitchats will work for Canada right now, but not to P.O. boxes.
gauld
OP1 year agoI have about 30 minute drive myself to Chit Chats. I signed up for it today and went there today to ask questions, Fo Canada Post it's about 5 minute walk to there. I ship alot of Dvds, comics, an stuff like that so being used to a cost of $3.00 to $5.00 by letterpost for it .. i'll be ahusting my listings tonight. I have them set for $8.00 right now but i'll change my settings to add Chit Chats as an ecomony shipping option and i'll add UPS Ground which will be alot more expensive except maybe for Expedited rares which will be simailr in price.
I need to do something if I want to make it through the month. I think with Chit Chats my overall osts is going to be a lot less for shipping compared to Expedited Canada Post rates and a bit more compared to Letterpost rates.
byto253
·1 year agoBe sure to check media mail rates from chitchats for items the qualify. When the price options show up for a shipment, there is a tick box at the top to select if it qualifies for media mail.
ilikehockeyjerseys
·1 year agoUnless something has changed, Media Mail is no longer available via Chit Chats.
Older clients still see it because they are grandfathered in.
byto253
·1 year agoIt has changed and Media Mail is back on the menu! I signed up after it was discontinued so did not get grandfathered in but it showed up a little while ago.
Shipping 3 LPs to the US with it tommorrow. $7.49 CDN each for all locations, the furthest being South Dakota.
recped
·1 year agoMedia mail is now only a "deal" for over 8oz, single cd's, dvd's, cassettes etc are the same or cheaper by a small amount using Ground Advantage.
hansatrade
·1 year agoI switched from CP to ChitChats on Friday. The shipping label printing process is basically almost the same. The price for light items (I rarely ship items heavier than 0.5 kg) is also the same (sometimes higher, sometimes lower). The same about the transit time. The only serious difference is the distance to the branch - while CP is about 800 m from my home, the closest ChitChats is about 8 km away. Also you cannot pay for the ChitChats shipping labels using your Ebay balance - you need to use your credit card.
gauld
OP1 year agoThat would be good. Hopefully it works good then .... I guess i'll know if it's working for me in a couple days once do my first transactions on there on Tueday.
byto253
·1 year agoI use flat rate shipping so have several business policies for different sizes and types of items. I have a good idea at this point what the shipping cost will be around for an item, - sometimes I am high, other times low but it works out. For small items it is easier to get an idea of a range - I will check the cost to ship to California, Mid-US and East coast and either use the California rate or a mid-point one to set up a policy - ditto for Canada East vs. West and go from there.
Chitchats also now offers USPS media mail shipping, so books, DVDs, Bluray, VHS, Vinyl LPs, cassettes can all be shipped to the US at a cost that is often well under Canada Post. That is something worth checking into strike or no strike as shipping can be waaay cheaper. A quirk is that the shipping calculator will not give you a media mail estimate. That is only provided on actual items you sold and have imported into Chitchats so I will use an item to input whatever location, dimensions and weight I want to get an estimate.
Suggest signing up, linking your ebay account to easily import orders and checking out the shipping options and costs for some orders. There is no obligation to send an item, I check out shipping costs that way all the time and then just delete the ones I won't be sending with Chitchats.
Interesting the Chitchats in the Maritimes has 1 corporate location and 29 dropoff spots at Maritime Bus Depots. That is the best coverage in the country!
gauld
OP1 year agoI haven't figured out how to link my account to Chit Chats yet ..... but it would come in handy if i could do that. I'm going to go over there tomorrow and talk to them anyways. It's about 20-30 minute drive to where they are at. If I had enough volume I could always arrange for pick upt too.
What do you pick for shipping option in Business Policy? Or does it matter? Or do you have your ebay account linked to it?
I signed up for it last night but still not sure about some stuff with them. They do look insanely cheaper tehn Canada Post except for letterpost as an option. People might like the tracking option though it has for not too much more then letterpost.
thanks
-Bill
byto253
·1 year agoJust give them a call, no need to really go in. I have found the phone support very good and they have helped me with account setup/configuration questions.
I list on .com so shipping options are different than on .ca. On .com I use "Standard Shipping from outside US" for the US and "Standard International Shipping" for Canada. For .ca if you choose flat rate shipping there are similar generic shipping options but calculated does not have the generic setups.
My eBay account is linked to Chitchats so that I can import sales info directly into Chitchats from eBay so I don't need to fill in the address and customs info.
gauld
OP1 year agoFor my first time i;' rather go talk to them in person .... after that if I have any other questions i'll call them, I signed up for the .com version ..... I didn't know there was a .ca version.
How did you link your account to you Chit Chats account? I did something wrong so it didn't link to it.
byto253
·1 year agoBy .com I was referring to eBay.com, the US site. Chitchats is just chitchats!
I linked that a few years ago, just recall it was part of the setup and could not exactly tell you how to.
Here is the page on how to link or integrate eBay with Chitchats. If you still have trouble, I would call in so that you have your computer in front of you and they will walk you through it.
https://support.chitchats.com/en/support/solutions/articles/47000427088-how-can-i-integrate-my-ebay-store-s-
gauld
OP1 year agoThank you!! I tried it out with one item and I was able to import it to Chit Chats. I was hoping it would do it to Ebay but I guess that's not the way it works. Once i'm ready to ship out the items i'll put in the details and it will make it a bit easier. Does it put any imfo on Ebay though> I did notice that it imported it from Ebay.com and not from my .ca ..... I guess it's pretty much the same anyways though for information.
byto253
·1 year agoThe tracking information will be automatically updated to eBay from Chitchats.
ilikehockeyjerseys
·1 year agoBill,
Are all your items weighed and measured already in the listings?
My recommendation would be to switch to UPS using calculated shipping. I am unsure if being located in Dartmouth will make your shipping rates uncompetitive with UPS.
While I think this would be a great opportunity to try out Chit Chats or Stallion (if they are available to you), because it is a chance to figure out and learn how a different carrier works, I don't think they are going to be the solution that you're looking for to replace lettermail.
If you click my profile and find posts, you will likely find obscenely long posts detailing my experience so far with trying to find substitutions for lettermail. Here is a recent one that outlines why I opted to go with UPS: https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Statement-from-the-CUPW-More-than-55-000-Postal-Workers/m-p/513285/highlight/true#M155904
One thing you could consider doing is using UPS Calculated rates for Canada and for larger items to the USA, but use a flat rate for smaller lettermail size items that would go to the USA and send those smaller USA items via Chit Chats. If your rates in Atlantic Canada are similar to mine, USPS Ground Advantage via Chit Chats should cost about $8 for a DVD or video game in a size 0 bubble mailer, or a comic book in a flat mailer. I would only do this if dropping off at Chit Chats is not a major imposition. If it takes significant time, I would just stick with calculated rates using UPS or Fedex.
The unfortunate reality of the situation is that there isn't a true 1:1 replacement for lettermail within Canada. The closest thing price wise is UniUni via Stallion, but the lack of integration with eBay means that you will consistently receive orders that don't qualify for the service, and you will have to spend time managing customers and cancelling them. By going with a carrier with calculated shipping like UPS or Fedex, you are going to experience less orders because of the higher cost of shipping, but it's a step above a complete shutdown if Canada Post w/ extended handling times isn't working for you.
gauld
OP1 year agoUPS is so expensive for my smaller items. I sell more stuff like comics, movies, and smaller items like those then my bigger items. If I could ship for alot less i'd be able to sell a lot more and would be a lot more competive I think. UPS Ground is an option .. but not sure if i want to go that route quite yet. I may add it for option for people though.
mrdutch1001
·1 year agoI should think a longtime 25 year eBay seller with over 2000 feedback should have sufficient knowledge and success to pass helpful information onto others rather than vice versa...
What I have gleaned from other selling sites(aside of Amazon because I am not a seller there), sellers have found deceasing sales over the past several months, so not everything can be blamed on the CP mail stoppage...
ricarmic
·1 year ago@mrdutch1001 "deceasing sales" is such an accurate typo! 😉
mrdutch1001
·1 year agowell as you can see, OP's concern is about how to " bump up" sales(an indication that sales have NOT halted) but are obviously not at a level where they "should" be......so I think I am accurate in using the wording"decreasing sales"...
ricarmic
·1 year ago@mrdutch1001 Yep, but you made a typo, it says deceasing not decreasing....darned spell checkers! 😉
mrdutch1001
·1 year agoyeah, unfortunately edit time had expired before that little ole typo was realized...
Sunday's multi-tasking, not always so great! LOL!
gauld
OP1 year agoIn the past month i've been averaging 1 or 2 sales a day even with promoted listings on for up to 12% .. since the announcement of the strike it's barely been 1 sale a day if that. If my shipping is a lot less it might help bring up my sales. A lot of this too is all these changes on Ebay has make the site a lot more difficult to use and harder for people to find stuff too.
So have you had any experince with Chti Chats or other companies that aren't in the Business Policies?
mrdutch1001
·1 year agoNo experience with ChitChats as that courier is not even available in Saskatchewan...
To be able to ship with a reliable alternative that I believe could handle the increased volumes of mail due to the CP stoppage, I would have to go with what is available near by and convenient for me> UPS...
and eBay does have discounted rates with UPS for purchasing shipping labels through eBay...
gauld
OP1 year agoUPS is so expensive here for smaller items .... i'd be looking at at least $15.00 by UPS ground and for my bigger items more then Expedit is for Canada Post. I was looking into it already using it on Ebay.
mrdutch1001
·1 year agoyes, it really depends on the size and value of items as to which carrier to choose...
(this example below is from someone else in the household who is also an eBay seller):
a 425 g item (value over $50)shipping via UPS Ground from Regina to a B.C. city east of Vancouver using eBay 's UPS shipping label>just over $18.00...that same item would have been shipped via Canada Post in the smallest flat rate box for $18.89...