Best rates for Canada Post Domestic shipments - suggestions?

[cottagewoman]

So I'm working out where to find the best rate providers for CP DOMESTIC labels, not to USA.

Shippo is a tad lower than eBay rates, not by much. Stallion is much lower, however it's a 25km round trip drive, and as I'm building up a new store my volume doesn't make sense for the gas/time cost yet.

easyShip on the free plan is the same discount as Shippo. I signed up for shippingChimp but they're giving me the run around on activating the account since I'm selling on eBay only and don't have an ecommerce platform setup on my business email account domain.

Any other suggestions? Would be greatly appreciated!

[mrdutch1001]

Much depends on what you are selling, whether small lightweight items or large bulker items or something inbetween...

[cottagewoman]

Selling anything from jewelry to light fixtures and stereo equipment - everything seller. 200g to 6kg.

[mrdutch1001]

You will have to do some research, calculations,etc which entails a goodly amount of work,but is most likely the best method to assess which carrier is best suited for each category of items, as it is possible that no one carrier will provide a blanket solution of best rates. I have just 3 categories and not so much choice of shipping carriers as the big cities, but for me it is Canada Post all the way...I utilize oversize lettermail, CP flat rate boxes, and expedited parcel rates.

[cottagewoman]

Totally know the drill - I built out a rate table using Stallion Express rates, taking the higher of either CP or ICS courrier for every sector available in the rates table.

I'm just looking for the best discount label provider specifically for CP domestic.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

You may know this already, but Stallion and Chit Chats only use Canada Post for final delivery. So the shipping time and overall experience may differ from sending it directly through Canada Post. If you do opt for Stallion, it might make more sense to use all their partner carriers, and select the one that is cheapest. For example, you can ship a large parcel between two major cities in the same region for about $6-$8. During the strike, when I was trying them out, I shipped a 12x12x12 1KG+ box for that price. 

Generally what I have noticed is that with Canada Post labels that are strictly Canada Post services (not Stallion), prices may vary slightly by platform, but the difference usually isn't great enough to justify using a different platform than eBay labels. Although, I have not tried ShippingChimp.

eBay does have something called Canada Post Expedited Lite, which is usually around $8 for anything below 200g. Once in a blue moon, you will get a customer where Expedited Lite costs $25 or something very high, but that isn't common. 

Otherwise, you have Canada Post Flat Rate boxes that are sometimes cheaper than labels and range from $18-$35 depending on the size. 

For very small items of low value, you also have Canada Post Lettermail. Anything below 2CM and under 100 grams can be shipped for two P-stamps ($2.48). Most people who do high volumes of lettermail look for discount stamps, either from a dealer or from places like Costco where you can get 5 percent off each roll of 100 stamps. Prices increase in 100g increments up to the limit of 500g. https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/support/articles/lettermail/pricing.page

You don't get tracking for lettermail. That means if a buyer claims an item did not arrive, you have to refund it. Most people seem to agree that the increased profit from the lower shipping costs exceeds the cost of refunding item not received requests.

UPS domestically is also a good option if they are accessible to you. They are usually cheaper than Canada Post by a few dollars.

Depending on what you have your volume pegged at, I would consider an extended handling time like 5 business days, and make one Stallion trip per week. I would use their cheaper couriers for most orders. You would save $6+ per order doing this compared to the next cheapest service. So it comes down to whether you think the market for your items would be willing to put up with a 5 day handling time, and whether you think your volume multiplied by the average savings per order could justify the drive each week. 

[regs43]

I used Chit Chats during the Postal stirke, and I was seeing really great prices like $5-8 labels in Canada for some/most locations, ever since the strike ended they are more like $6-20. I sell items that are 100-200 grams at most.

I just checked for fun the 2 items i have to ship now with Chit Chats vs ebay labels

Chit Chats cheapest option of 2 shows $6.09 (other option like $12.00) and ebay labels $6.22 (ex lite) from Ottawa to Montreal

Chit Chats 1 option $19.94 and ebay labels (ex lite) $8.41 Ottawa to Saskatchewan. Expedited Parcel was 17.35 still almost $2 cheaper then the option on Chit Chats.

Is this normal for Chit Chats pricing? Were they giving better rates during the strike? I don't use them anymore as its like 45min drive one way so for 20cent cavings per package (in some cases and losses in others) thats not worth it. Just curious if during the strike they had different services being offers that are gone now (I have a bussiness account). Thinking ahead for the potential strike in May.

[cottagewoman]

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@ilikehockeyjerseys wrote:

You may know this already, but Stallion and Chit Chats only use Canada Post for final delivery. So the shipping time and overall experience may differ from sending it directly through Canada Post. If you do opt for Stallion, it might make more sense to use all their partner carriers, and select the one that is cheapest. For example, you can ship a large parcel between two major cities in the same region for about $6-$8. During the strike, when I was trying them out, I shipped a 12x12x12 1KG+ box for that price. 

Generally what I have noticed is that with Canada Post labels that are strictly Canada Post services (not Stallion), prices may vary slightly by platform, but the difference usually isn't great enough to justify using a different platform than eBay labels. Although, I have not tried ShippingChimp.

eBay does have something called Canada Post Expedited Lite, which is usually around $8 for anything below 200g. Once in a blue moon, you will get a customer where Expedited Lite costs $25 or something very high, but that isn't common. 

Otherwise, you have Canada Post Flat Rate boxes that are sometimes cheaper than labels and range from $18-$35 depending on the size. 

For very small items of low value, you also have Canada Post Lettermail. Anything below 2CM and under 100 grams can be shipped for two P-stamps ($2.48). Most people who do high volumes of lettermail look for discount stamps, either from a dealer or from places like Costco where you can get 5 percent off each roll of 100 stamps. Prices increase in 100g increments up to the limit of 500g. https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/support/articles/lettermail/pricing.page

You don't get tracking for lettermail. That means if a buyer claims an item did not arrive, you have to refund it. Most people seem to agree that the increased profit from the lower shipping costs exceeds the cost of refunding item not received requests.

UPS domestically is also a good option if they are accessible to you. They are usually cheaper than Canada Post by a few dollars.

Depending on what you have your volume pegged at, I would consider an extended handling time like 5 business days, and make one Stallion trip per week. I would use their cheaper couriers for most orders. You would save $6+ per order doing this compared to the next cheapest service. So it comes down to whether you think the market for your items would be willing to put up with a 5 day handling time, and whether you think your volume multiplied by the average savings per order could justify the drive each week. 

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Thank for a very well rounded and salient response!  I now understand that Stallion (imagine ChitChats as well) is using their own trucks and moving packages to urban centers (they like to call it zone skipping) in Canada - that's why their rates are so much cheaper.  If you use the rate checker on Stallion's home page you'll see the massive jump between a Calgary postal code and a rural one - since they'll still have to move from the urban center out into the rural address at a full CP rate.

I've tweaked my rate table to eBay CP quoted rates minus 10 percent, as that seems to be what I'm seeing off when using Shippo for Canadian domestic.   Shippo gave a fabulous rate inter-city for me (Montreal): 5.09 for an expedited label at 250g!

If/when the volume picks up on my new account based on CAD (had to do that, my 20+ year account was set to USD when MP was put in place), I can consider the drive to the Stallion location as being cost effective.  For now, the CP three blocks away is the best option for 6-10 packages a week.

[flipistics]

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@cottagewoman wrote:
So I'm working out where to find the best rate providers for CP DOMESTIC labels, not to USA.

Shippo is a tad lower than eBay rates, not by much. Stallion is much lower, however it's a 25km round trip drive, and as I'm building up a new store my volume doesn't make sense for the gas/time cost yet.

easyShip on the free plan is the same discount as Shippo. I signed up for shippingChimp but they're giving me the run around on activating the account since I'm selling on eBay only and don't have an ecommerce platform setup on my business email account domain.

Any other suggestions? Would be greatly appreciated!

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EasyShip actually seems to vary. Sometimes they're cheaper for Canada Post than other options and sometimes they're more expensive. I don't think the discounts they have are the same.  Sendle through EasyShip is (often) cheaper than Canada Post. ICS through ClickShip is very similar to Sendle. Regarding ICS and Sendle, I find Sendle is often cheaper for items in the same province or a long distance away, and ICS is often cheaper in between. ClickShip seems to have some very good UPS and Purolator rates.

I had no problems signing up for Shipping Chimp at all and I don't have an ecommerce platform on my business domain.  I'm not sure what to suggest there.

[cottagewoman]

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I had no problems signing up for Shipping Chimp at all and I don't have an ecommerce platform on my business domain.  I'm not sure what to suggest there.

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Yes, it's very strange - I used my own registered domain email address, and they said they couldn't confirm the domain even though it's actively registered and I've been using it for like 20 years.  Their CS was terrible.  Not sure what's going on with them.

[flipistics]

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@cottagewoman wrote:

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I've tweaked my rate table to eBay CP quoted rates minus 10 percent, as that seems to be what I'm seeing off when using Shippo for Canadian domestic.   Shippo gave a fabulous rate inter-city for me (Montreal): 5.09 for an expedited label at 250g!

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Canada Post has an unannounced promotion right now for packages going close by in a few of the major cities.  You might have actually got that 5.09 label a little cheaper buying the label directly from Canada Post (assuming you have a SfSB account).

[recped]

Your best option is to avoid using Canada Post except when they are the only serivice available.

I use Stallion, 90% of my Canadian shipping is through UniUni, Fleet Optics or ICS (whichever is the cheapest), for locations that none of those cover the next option is their zone-skip Canada Post service (I don't know who handles those but it's not Stallion themselves). For any rural/remote locations where none of these services are available I will use regular Canada Post from Stallion.

I will not use eBay labels for Canada Post until they fix the billing issue for GST/HST. I may from time to time use the Tracked Packet USA service (if it is the cheapest, which is rare) because there are no GST/HST issues for packages being mailed to destinations outside Canada.

[cottagewoman]

Thanks @recped - as my store is new I'm going to be fulfilling orders in 1-2 days so I can get enough successful transactions completed to get this stupid 30 day payment hold policy gone. My volume isn't high enough yet to justify the drive times to the Stallion branch. Yet. BTW how has UniUni been for reliability? I've read some pretty terrible reviews where they leave packages at neighbors, misdeliver, etc as their end mile drivers are crowdsourced like Uber.

[regs43]

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@recped wrote:

I will not use eBay labels for Canada Post until they fix the billing issue for GST/HST. I may from time to time use the Tracked Packet USA service (if it is the cheapest, which is rare) because there are no GST/HST issues for packages being mailed to destinations outside Canada.

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Yes this is a major NEGATIVE to ebay labels. Chit Chats isn't close for me and the drive time and gas to get there is probably not worth the maybe 10 tracked packages I send in Canada a week (mostly lettermail seller here). Loosing out on the on ability to claim the GST/HST with proper receipts and proof sucks (I was audited last year so not risking claiming that this year with no proof).

[recped]

Also a Lettermail user for more than half of my Canadian orders.

Just curious, why is your location set to Canada, Canada?

[regs43]

Did it like 10 years ago, never updated it. My Postal codes associated wth the account so anyone search by distance (if they do) would show that way.

[transtraders]

I am jelous of sellers that have access to cross-border shippers. I do not. I use ebay labels 90% of the time. I do use NetParcel quite a bit because they tend to have good UPS rates for larger packages (usually electronics for me).

[recped]

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@transtraders wrote:

I am jelous of sellers that have access to cross-border shippers. I do not. I use ebay labels 90% of the time. I do use NetParcel quite a bit because they tend to have good UPS rates for larger packages (usually electronics for me).

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ChitChats have a drop off location in Moncton, I do not know but guess that the rates are not quite as attractive as shipping from Southern Ontario.

[transtraders]

I looked into chit-chats once awhile ago and It just didn't make since to me. I only ship out 4-6 parcels a week, if I did more sales it probably would make since, but I only do EBay part time right now.