Shipping with Chit Chats

gauld
Community Member

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

 

 

Message 1 of 36
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35 REPLIES 35

Re: Shipping with Chit Chats

I 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.  

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Re: Shipping with Chit Chats

gauld
Community Member

I 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.

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Re: Shipping with Chit Chats


@gauld wrote:

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

 

 


I'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.

Message 23 of 36
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Re: Shipping with Chit Chats

Be 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.

Message 24 of 36
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Re: Shipping with Chit Chats

Chitchat 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.

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Re: Shipping with Chit Chats

Unless something has changed, Media Mail is no longer available via Chit Chats.

 

Older clients still see it because they are grandfathered in. 

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Re: Shipping with Chit Chats

It 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.

 

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Re: Shipping with Chit Chats


@byto253 wrote:

Be 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.


 

Media 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.

 

 



"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.
Message 28 of 36
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Re: Shipping with Chit Chats

Switched 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

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Re: Shipping with Chit Chats

byto253
Community Member

Irony is driving by a CP picket line 200m from the Chitchats depot where I dropped off 10 shipments that would normally have gone CP. 

Message 30 of 36
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Re: Shipping with Chit Chats

@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

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Re: Shipping with Chit Chats

eBay 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!).

 

 

 



"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.
Message 32 of 36
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Re: Shipping with Chit Chats

I 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.

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Re: Shipping with Chit Chats

I 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.

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Re: Shipping with Chit Chats

You 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. 

 

 

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Re: Shipping with Chit Chats

I 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. 

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