Need advice "Blocking sales from Newfoundland"

[321continuegames]

Hello,

I am wondering if it is possible to block buyers from purchasing my items who are in Newfoundland Canada. I am also in Canada but shipping to Newfoundland is VERY expensive for me. I try to keep shipping and my prices as low as possible to attract more buyers but sometimes I get a buyer from Newfoundland and everytime I end up losing money on the Entire Transaction lol.

If there is not a way to straight out block buyers from there do I have another option? I was thinking could I do specified shipping to Newfoundland at time of purchase?

Thanks in advance.

[richardcm]

Use calculated shipping for parcels within Canada to get more accurate shipping costs within Canada.

Use Flat Rate shipping for Lettermail sized items. 2 cm thick or less and under 500 grams.

[femmefan1946]

I try to keep shipping and my prices as low as possible to attract more buyers

Don't.

Why try to attract sales that lose money?

When your items are bulky do NOT use Flat Rate Shipping.

Use Calculated Shipping.

I notice that your Star Wars Helmet, which I gather is meant to fit on the owner's head, ships for the same $35.00 amount to BC, ON, and the USA.

However the cost of shipping on a parcel would be wildly different.

NL is not relevant here . Check BC costs or even Manitoba.

I use V8R 5G8 for BC and K0A 0A6 for ON.

For the USA I check with 90210 and 32830 (Disney World FL)

Your customer will see the exact counter price for shipping to his doorstep. And you choose the service - Expedited is always a good choice in Canada, although I usually choose Tracked Packet which is slightly cheaper for USA.

Flat rate works fine for items that can go Letter Post.

And Flat Rate can include Free Shipping, which as you likely know means that the cost of shipping is included in the price of the item.

Which is the better deal? A $50 item with $5 shipping or a $55 item with Free Shipping?

The customer who likes low shipping costs LOVES "free" shipping.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@321continuegames wrote:

Hello,

I am wondering if it is possible to block buyers from purchasing my items who are in Newfoundland Canada. I am also in Canada but shipping to Newfoundland is VERY expensive for me. I try to keep shipping and my prices as low as possible to attract more buyers but sometimes I get a buyer from Newfoundland and everytime I end up losing money on the Entire Transaction lol.

If there is not a way to straight out block buyers from there do I have another option? I was thinking could I do specified shipping to Newfoundland at time of purchase?

Thanks in advance.

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As noted by @richardcm calculated would be your best option. Noticing that a number of your items are stuffies....for those you can enclose in a ziplock bag with air removed. Unzip and they come back to life. Anything you can do to cut down package size can affect final shipping costs. Smallest optimum sized box does help and will reduce the final calculation. I always ask at my local dollar store when in a need of used boxes. Another possible options are CP's  prepaid  national expedited boxes?  They may work in some situations as a more economical option compared to calculated shipping.

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/personal/sending/parcels/flat-rate-box.page?ecid=sem_p...

Some buyers shop by distance. They do realize that the farther away a buyer is can affect final shipping costs. 

-Lotz

Note: Ziplock bags with air removed  will NOT work for coffee cups and similar. I sure wish they would.  😄

[pjcdn2005]

No it isn't possible to block specific provinces.  As others mentioned calculated shipping would be the best method for some items.

[321continuegames · Accepted solution]

Amazing quality info here. I will edit my listings. I appreciate the time you took to write that out.

[321continuegames]

@femmefan1946 I sent you a Private Message in hope of some more advice.

[321continuegames]

About Shipping

Hey thanks for your help earlier on my post. I'm posting new items right now and am all paranoid about how I was going about pricing my shipping. For the most part it was pretty balanced out win some lose some (made more than lost on shipping costs).

Like you said I shouldn't approach it that way, I should try to get my Money Loss as close to 0%. I have two questions about calculated shipping and your strategy.

I think I know the answer to this one but, do I package the item as if I were to ship them out and measurements & weight without taping it shut obviously. Or do you measure without the box you will put it in?

Other question I have. With Calculated Shipping while the customer is scrolling through my items will it specify the shipping cost right away to them based on their location as they are shopping? Or will it say ex: Buy It Now $40. Shipping Calculated Shipping. With that being said when I check out other items like mine before I list them to compare prices am I seeing the calculated Shipping Cost from that seller to me? If so that's how I have been pricing my shipping *Facepalm.

[femmefan1946]

Here's an example of a book that I am selling with Calculated Shipping.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/154450484971?&shqty=1&isGTR=1#shId

When I put in 90210 as  a US zipcode, I see shipping as $20.96. (Tracked Packet USA)

For K0A 0A6 in Ottawa I see $24.31

For V8R 5G8 in BC I see $14.44. (These are Regular Packet, but I actually would use Expedited which costs the same but is faster. )

You have a Solutions for Small Business account from Canada Post already, right?

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/business/small-business.page?

[motomike_canada]

I know there's a lot of proponents of calculated shipping on here, but another approach is using the rate tables. I have a couple shipping policies that use the Rate Table to add shipping costs to certain areas (like NL or rural BC) . for example, it might cost me $10 to Montreal or Toronto and $21-22 to NL for the same item, so I put the base rate at $10, and surcharge of $12 for NL .   Depending how many items you're listing, it makes it quick if you want to use flat rates instead of inputting dims and weight for each item. 

I will go between different shipping policies for different size/weight/value  items as I list. I just find the calculated is out to lunch for a lot of items (too high vs actual ship cost). 

I've toyed with free shipping as well, but seems wrong to penalize someone the closer they are to me just to be able not to lose money shipping to remote addresses.  And I'd rather be able to offer items to them, we sell stuff to the Far North on a semi regular basis.

just my approach, ymmv. 

🙂 

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

If you don't want to use calculated shipping, you can also set up what is called a rate table. This lets you put a different flat rate for each province.

Additionally, Canada Post offers flat rate boxes. A small flat rate box, which is 10 x 14 x 2 is $18.49. The benefit of flat rate boxes is that they provide a ceiling on what shipping will cost you. They aren't the best to use by default, because they are usually more expensive. But if you sell enough it is good to keep one of each size on hand in case you get a package to a remote location. All the information is here: https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/personal/sending/parcels/flat-rate-box.page

Lastly, you might consider offering lettermail for lower value items that are less than 2 CM thick (most DVDs, some loose action figures, etc). There is no tracking, which means you will be on the hook to refund if it doesn't arrive. But you can send most items for between 2-4 dollars, anywhere in Canada. Most people have very few issues with lettermail on lower priced items. You will "lose" an item every once in a while, but making an extra 10+ dollars in profit per item more than covers that.

[femmefan1946]

Where can I find the rate tables?  Sounds interesting.

I know US sellers can Block all sorts of domestic shipments- including to APO (military) addresses. "Thank you for your service, I don't want your business."

How does this work with the eBay policy that we must ship at the cost we advertise?

[byto253]

For heavy items on .com I will block all but the lower US states as I have to use fixed shipping, and while I can work with the shipping amount for the lower 48, the cost to protectorates is too high.  I do include text to request a shipping quote, but the reality is there are few sales to those areas.   Under 2kg, no problem since it is all the same rate for tracked packet if using Canada Post.   

I got caught on this shipping a diving weight belt to a protectorate and ended up shipping the weights and belts in separate shipments as together it tripped a much higher rate.  I used chitchats for that one.  

Not sure why a US seller with calculated shipping would not include protectorates and APO though, it is all handled by USPS. 

[marnotom!]

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@byto253 wrote:

Not sure why a US seller with calculated shipping would not include protectorates and APO though, it is all handled by USPS. 

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US sellers tend to watch what "everyone else" is doing without understanding why those sellers are doing what they're doing.  Sellers using USPS who are excluding protectorates and APO locations from shipping are likely copying sellers who don't ship to those locations because they're using carriers other than USPS. 

Way back when dot-com once had an International Trading Discussion Board. I once made in passing tongue-in-cheek references to Liechtenstein and Vatican City as locations where a hypothetical seller might want to add to their shipping exclusion lists.  I now see that many sellers have now added those locations to their "ship to" exclusion lists even though there's really no reason to have them there.  Guess the Pope now has trouble buying stuff from the US through eBay.

Back to my original point, the prospect of filling out a customs form for an APO shipment gives some US sellers heeby-jeebies, too.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

If you click on listings, and navigate to 'Business Policies', you can edit your shipping policies.

If you edit a shipping policy, at the bottom of the screen there is a section headlined by 'Shipping rate tables'. You can create, edit, and apply rate tables. 

You can then offer one a different provincial rate for each service. 

I am not a big fan of calculated shipping, because it means you have to weigh and package everything prior to listing it. If you sell a large amount items of all different weights and sizes, this is a lot of extra work up front. If you have a very large inventory, it also would not make sense to box up hundreds or thousands of different sized items when they are listed. Within provinces, the Canada Post rates vary by a few dollars. I understand that every dollar counts, but I think if a seller's margins for items that require tracking are so low that 17 dollars vs 13 dollars can ruin the sale, they probably should think twice about selling that item. 

Flat rates are much better in terms of converting clicks to sales. Calculated shipping can also make combined shipping more tedious. It creates a barrier for the buyer to commit to the purchase since they have to wait for the seller to invoice them. With flat rate, they can add all of the items to the cart, and so long as the seller has appropriate combined shipping rules set up, they can check out right away. Flat rates also allow the seller to fold some or all of the shipping cost into the BIN cost, which from a marketing standpoint might help produce a sale. 

Unless you're dealing with really large heavy items, where the shipping cost is going to swing dramatically, Canada Post's shipping within provinces varies too little for calculated shipping to be beneficial. Which is why rate tables are the way to go.

[321continuegames]

Yes I do.