Whether you’re brand new to shipping or looking for a way to cut down on your costs, I’m going to show you five ways to help you save on shipping rates in Canada. Shipping can be one of the largest expenses for your business and one of the main factors that can turn customers away. More sales, better savings, and an easier shipping process are all benefits that you can experience by taking advantage of the resources shared in this post.
Open a Canada Post Small Business Account
In the majority of cases, the cheapest shipping provider in Canada is Canada Post. It is also usually the slowest shipping option, but if you and your customer are looking for the least expensive option, you should start here.
Unlock cheaper shipping rates by opening a free Solutions for Small Business (SFSB) account with Canada Post. Your account will begin at Tier 1 Savings Level. Every 3 months, they will assess your savings level by looking at the amount you spent on shipping in the last 12 months. Based on that spending amount, they will either raise or lower your savings level. Usually, your business will grow, so as you ship more parcels, you will be eligible to move up savings levels and access higher discounts.
Advantages of Canada Post SFSB Account:
- easily create and print shipping labels from home using their Snap Ship program
- schedule parcel pickups to your home/business and save on trips to the post office
- enable return shipping
- save on packaging materials
- add insurance & tracking to your shipments
- ship to any location across Canada, including PO boxes
- easily ship to the USA or worldwide using the same shipping program
- access to special promotions offering free shipments or parcel pickups
Disdvantages of Canada Post SFSB Account:
- not compatible with Etsy orders – must manually enter addresses & package information to generate labels
- parcel pickups are not free ($3.50 + tax/pickup)
POST UPDATE: Since this post was written, Etsy has introduced the ability to link your Canada Post SFSB Account on Etsy. This allows you to easily & quickly generate shipping labels directly on Etsy (no copying & pasting of addresses required), while still working towards your SFSB Account Tiered Savings Level. This is great news for Canadian Etsy sellers! The feature is still pretty new. I am testing it out and will make a new post all about this feature.
Save on Courier Shipping Rates in Canada
What is a courier?
Canada Post is a public postal service. It was created by the Canadian government to service a public need for delivering mail across the country.
Couriers, on the other hand, are privately owned companies who also offer shipping services. There are a variety of couriers in Canada ranging in size and price. Some of the bigger ones include FedEx, Purolator, UPS, & DHL. Smaller ones you may or may not be familiar with include Canpar, Loomis, & Dicom.
In general, couriers offer quicker shipping for a higher cost. They do not deliver to PO boxes or to some remote areas of the country, so there are some limitations as well.
Similar to how you can sign up for a small business account with Canada Post, most couriers will have the option to register for an account. Pricing is usually tiered, which means that your discount will depend on your shipping volume with them. In order to compare which courier would be the best to use for a particular parcel, you would have to create accounts with multiple couriers and manually assess the best fit for that shipment. Not only does that waste your time, if you aren’t consistently choosing the same courier, your savings levels are going to be minor across all couriers.
Access discounted courier rates with ShipTime
ShipTime is a company who provides you with discounted courier rates. They are not a shipping company themselves, so anything you ship will be sent through a separate reputable courier company. You will use ShipTime’s website to create & print your labels and the courier you select will pick up your package and get it sent out.
With ShipTime, you can create one account to easily compare shipping rates across multiple couriers and access their savings levels with each company. There are no fees to create an account or volume requirements you have to meet. Sign up for a free ShipTime account here to save on courier shipping in Canada.
Advantages of ShipTime:
- easily create and print shipping labels from home using their online program
- schedule free parcel pickups to your home/business
- add insurance & tracking to your shipments
- easily ship to the USA
- integrate with your own website to easily generate labels for your orders (compatible with Shopify, Woocommerce, & more)
Disadvantages of ShipTime:
- not compatible with Etsy orders – must manually enter addresses & package information to generate labels
- cannot ship to PO boxes or rural Canadian locations
- cannot ship outside of North America
Save on Shipping Prices through Etsy
If you are selling on Etsy, you can pay for and create shipping labels right on your order screen. This is the easiest way to save on shipping In Canada as most of the shipping information is already entered.
Etsy offers a small discount on Canada Post’s retail shipping prices. In general, this is comparable to the savings you get under your own Canada Post small business account at Savings Level 1. Something to consider: if you only use Etsy labels, your discount will remain the same. If you ship through your Canada Post account, your discounts will likely increase as your volume grows.
Advantages of Etsy Labels
- easiest & quickest way to create & print labels right on your order screen
- get a small discount on shipping rates
- add insurance & tracking to your shipments
- ship to any location across Canada, including PO boxes
- easily ship to the USA or worldwide
Disadvantages of Etsy Labels
- discount rate is small and won’t increase as your business grows
- no parcel pickup service
Save on Canada to USA Shipping with Chit Chats
Chit Chats is a third party service that takes your packages and ships them for you. They ship with Canada Post for domestic shipments, USPS for shipments to the USA, & Asendia for international shipments. Sign up for a free Chit Chats account here and get a $5 credit to your account to try it out for yourself.
While they offer discounts on all shipping methods, their highest savings is on shipments to the USA. How do they do this? When you use Canada Post to ship to the USA, they first ship it within Canada to the border where it transfers over to USPS who then ships it to the recipient. Canada Post’s rates are higher than USPS’. We have a larger country with a small population scattered across it, so deliveries are understandably more costly. Chit Chats cuts Canada Post out of the equation. They drive the packages across the border and ship them with USPS from within the USA. This gives you access to USPS’s lower domestic shipping prices.
Their biggest limitation is their small number of branches/drop off locations across the country. If you don’t live near a drop off centre, you have to mail your packages to them, which adds cost & time to your shipments. They do offer a service through Canpar to give you discounts on sending your packages to Chit Chats. You will want to consolidate your packages to minimize this extra cost – meaning pack several of your smaller shipments in one big box to deliver to Chit Chats. They will then sort your packages and ship them out with the appropriate shipping service.
Advantages of Chit Chats
- Save big on shipments to the USA
- ship to anywhere in Canada or USA
- ship internationally
- integrates with Etsy, Shopify, Amazon, & Ebay for easier label creation
- save on packaging materials
Disadvantages of Chit Chats
- extra time spent driving to a Chit Chats drop-off or consolidating your packages to send to Chit Chats if you don’t live nearby
- extra cost to send your packages to Chit Chats if you don’t live nearby
- longer list of prohibited items that you cannot ship
- double insurance costs – if mailing consolidated packages to Chit Chats, you should add insurance on that shipment plus on each individual package shipping to your customer
My Recommendations
I recommend opening up both a Solutions for Small Business Account with Canada Post and an account with ShipTime. This will help you save on shipments in Canada and internationally, while giving you a range of shipping options to offer your customers.
You will need at least one shipping service that uses Canada Post so that you can ship everywhere across the country (PO boxes, rural addresses, etc.). The SFSB Account allows you the most potential for savings with Canada Post as well as the most perks.
It is also a good idea to offer courier service to your customers who need their package sooner. ShipTime easily allows you to choose the best option for your shipment and save big on courier rates.
All of the services mentioned in this post are free to sign up, so don’t be afraid to try all of them and see what works best for you. Just starting out? Save this post and come back to it when you’re ready to expand your shipping to more countries or looking for ways to cut costs.
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