What is the most affordable way to ship products from Canada on Shopify?

dirtyjane
Excursionist
15 0 24

I'm going crazy trying to find a cheaper way to ship products from Canada to Canadian and US customers. I'm literally going broke paying for shipping! And I'm exhausted researching this. I've read through a bunch of threads and have yet to come across the BEST way to ship products from Canada (I sell apparel). 

It is SO frustrating knowing US shippers can ship a pair of shorts for $2 while it costs me almost $20 to ship across Canada and $13 to ship to the US. Forget about offering free shipping! There's no way I can absorb that. I've already spent money shipping products into Canada and paying import fees. Other than jacking up the price of my product, which customers will catch on to as they can find the brands cheaper elsewhere, I'm at a loss.

I've tried by-passing Shopify shipping and using a Canada Post business account but they won't let me pay with my US dollar credit card (it's what I use because my entire business runs in US$). And it's time-consuming entering all the shipping information.

I've tried using Shopify apps to help me manage my shipping. So far the ones I've tried ONLY let me use Canada Post and the integration with my business account doesn't work. Le sigh!

And anytime I check other options that are supposed to be cheaper, they're actually double the price. I KNOW someone has figured this out and has the answer. I've spent hours and hours on this!

If you're an app owner, I can't spend any more money on apps - I'm at my limit. I need a solution for shipping asap as my margins are shite because of the high shipping costs. I'm almost ready to immigrate to the US where everything seems to be less expensive. 

HELP!

Replies 6 (6)

Tira
Shopify Staff (Retired)
1260 90 223

Hey, @dirtyjane.

Tira here.

Thanks so much for taking the time to explain what’s going on. I really appreciate the research and time you’ve taken to look into shipping and I want you to know I appreciate your frustrations here and I’m here to help.

It sounds like you want to provide the best shipping experience for both you and your customers, without having to increase your prices and you want to remain competitive to other retailers. Is that correct?

I did some research and here are some options you can look into:

  1. You can offer free shipping to your customers, and build it into the price of your products. You’ll want to keep the price still competitive, and it’s a great way to offset your shipping costs for you and your customers by keeping them “low” or at “free shipping” 
  2. If you want to avoid increasing your prices to cover your shipping costs and want to make shipping affordable for you and your customers, you can control your packaging.  I recommend checking out to see if Canada Post, UPS, DHL, or USPS have free packaging like polymailers, that you can use to mail your products to customers.

These tips along with more tips on reducing your shipping costs in your business are shared in our blog post: How Can I Reduce Shipping Costs as a Small Shop?. 

You mentioned that you tried some apps. What apps did you try? Were they providing a discount?

Chat soon,

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

Tira
Shopify Staff (Retired)
1260 90 223

Hi, @dirtyjane.

Tira here again.

How are you? Were you able to resolve this issue with the steps I provided earlier?

I’m looking forward to hearing from you,

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

dirtyjane
Excursionist
15 0 24

Hi Tira,

I haven't found a suitable solution for this yet. I already build a little bit of room by increasing my product prices, but I have to remain somewhat competitive as I carry brands that customers can get elsewhere for less money. 

I use compostable mailers. They're as small as I can get them!

And every app that claims to offer the LOWEST rates in the land, don't. They've all ended up being more expensive and/or I'm very limited in Canada. I feel like I've tried every single option and nothing has lowered my shipping rates. 

Thanks for trying, though.

 

Tira
Shopify Staff (Retired)
1260 90 223

Thanks for getting back to me with what you’ve tried, @dirtyjane. I really appreciate all of the research you’ve done on shipping and your frustrations. I spoke with my team to brainstorm some ideas for shipping for you and here are our insights:

1) I recommend checking out our guide on Shopify Shipping Services: Offer Affordable and Convenient Shipping for You and Your Customers which goes in depth into what Shopify Shipping is, choosing a carrier to ship with, carrier delivery times, local options, and the Shopify Fulfillment Network which can help you fulfill your orders so that you can focus on doing what you love in your business. I think this blog post will be helpful to help you plan your shipping strategy. 

2) I am curious if a discount would help plus free shipping with orders that are at a higher dollar amount. This will help you cover some of your shipping costs as shipping more items at once is much cheaper than shipping items separately, or shipping small orders. This will also help you stay within your budget, stay competitive and it will also increase your average dollar per sale. Here are some example shipping strategies from our help docs that you can try: Plan your shipping strategy. I also recommend checking out our blog post on discount strategies, which covers how you can use discounts to help you stay competitive, the types of discounts you can use on Shopify, and how discounts can help you with your business: Pricing Strategies: Discount Strategies and Tactics. Once you have a discount and shipping strategy in place, I think it will be much easier for you to cover your costs and still provide the best price and value for your customers.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this!


3) Do you have an example of an app that you’ve tried? I would love to take a look at the app’s details and see if we can match you with something that suits what you need.

Chat soon,

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

saivismitha
Shopify Partner
138 7 32

Hello @dirtyjane ,
 
 As per domestic shipment is concerned, the flagship is the cheapest option to ship within Canada. Where it eases the shipping process and allows you to access higher discounts on shipping costs for shipping orders in high volumes.


FedEx Freight, UPS freight, and Purolator freight services from LTL shipping with netParcel is a great way to get the cheapest shipping within Canada.


FedEx or UPS Ground is the cheapest service if the delivery date is not a prime factor.


You can reduce the shipping costs by following ways,

- As shipment destination is one of the factors while calculating the shipping rates by carrier, you can decrease the shipping distance based on shipping zones.
- The package dimensions play a most crucial role in calculating shipping costs. You can also reduce your package’s dimensional values and weight.
- Find the discounted supplies
- Get the discounted shipping rates
You can get negotiated discount rates on shipping based on the volume you are shipping, this gradually decreases shipping costs.
- You can also get insured with third parties.
- Switch over to poly mailers from the packaging box.

Customer Success @ PluginHive
Shipping Automation | FedEx shipping | Multi-carrier shipping | Shipment Tracking | Australia Post shipping
dirtyjane
Excursionist
15 0 24

Netparcel is not cheaper than the labels Shopify offers. I've checked ALL of the external apps that guarantee cheaper labels. NONE of them do. Maybe in the US, but not in Canada unfortunately. And I've just about had it with Canada Post. Their service is awful. Worse than awful.