These 3 businesses know the secret to dramatically reduced shipping costs in Canada

Apr 25 2023, 3:16 pm

Picture it: You’re shopping online, you’ve got a pretty decent haul, you go to check out, and you’re met with through-the-roof shipping costs and a delivery date that seems like an eternity away.

Many of us can relate. In fact, a Leger survey found that three-quarters of Canadians (71%) are frustrated with courier services in Canada. And this is having a seriously negative impact on small businesses, with shoppers often choosing to abandon their carts due to high shipping costs.

Naturally, Canadian small businesses want to provide low-cost shipping, quick delivery, and all-around exceptional service for their potential customers — and that’s where Sendle can help.

The innovative service makes affordable and reliable shipping simple for Canadian small businesses and their customers. It offers the best rates by unlocking the power of big business delivery networks relied on by some of the continent’s largest companies, enabling Canadian small businesses to offer shipping rates that are up to 82% cheaper than Canada Post.

Sendle is fully integrated with the services small businesses already use including Shopify, Woocommerce, Squarespace, eBay, Etsy, OrderCup and Envia, making things even easier. What’s more, every parcel sent with Sendle is 100% carbon neutral at no extra cost, so it’s better for the planet too.

In April, Sendle also launched the cheapest, tracked, door-to-door solution for shipping to the US from Canada, which is sure to benefit Canadian small businesses even more, helping entrepreneurs expand their shipments into the US.

If your company could use some help in the shipping department, we spoke to three small business owners about how their experience with Sendle has helped their businesses flourish. 

Wood Wood Toys

sendle shipping wood wood toys

Wood Wood Toys/Sendle

Rennie Wood is the owner of Wood Wood Toys, an eco-friendly online toy store. As his business grew dramatically over the pandemic, he became increasingly frustrated by the costs and delays that came with using Canada Post and looked for alternatives.

“Consumers have become accustomed to free and fast shipping, so small businesses need to be willing to match the shipping services offered by the biggest e-commerce sites if they want to stay competitive,” he says.

Wood needed a shipping partner that was fast, affordable, and dependable — and Sendle was the answer.

“They seem to be really focused on understanding and serving small businesses, which has made it a lot easier for us to get help when we need it,” he says. “By keeping our shipping costs down and our delivery speeds up, we can stay focused on offering great products at a great price — without the headaches caused by missed delivery dates and rising operational costs.”

As Wood points out, people all over Canada have been feeling the effects of inflation, and no one wants to deal with rising costs. By switching to Sendle for shipments, Wood Wood Toys was able to keep its free shipping threshold the same as it was three years ago and minimize price increases across the board — keeping old customers and attracting new ones.

“It’s hard to find the perfect balance between price and performance, but with Sendle we think that we’ve found the best of both worlds,” he says.

Mini Mushroom Farms

sendle shipped mini mushroom farm

Mini Mushroom Farms/Sendle

Similarly, Mahyar Mahrokh, CEO of Mini Mushroom Farms, struggled with the burden of high shipping costs in Canada. His company predominately sells mushroom growing kits, which weigh a minimum of 5 lbs. This meant that shipping costs were consistently high, which led to the business having to bear up to 75% of those costs themselves.

Once he discovered Sendle, Mahrokh was able to save money immediately. “Large shipping companies have their price tiers adjusted in a way that unless you are shipping very high volumes, you cannot take advantage of their discounted rates. And as a start-up company, you end up paying premium prices for a not-so-premium service. With Sendle, however, the barrier to entry for discounted rates is fairly low, so you can start saving at a very early stage.”

Mahrokh also found that, in contrast to Sendle, larger shipping businesses frequently provided him with poor and impersonal customer service.

“One of the many reasons that we enjoy our business with Sendle is the fact that there is always a person, in opposition to an AI system, available to resolve any issues in a fast, fair, and efficient manner,” he says.

Mini Mushroom Farms is now able to provide its customers with the best service and the best price, without compromising on quality.

Mahrokh’s advice to fellow entrepreneurs? “Keep updated with what is available out there. From greener and lighter packaging solutions to new shipping careers and companies! We got to know Sendle by curiosity, and it has been working great for us so far.”

Wanderruff

a dog wearing a sendle-shipped wanderruff collar

Wanderruff/Sendle

But it’s not only the low shipping rates and quality customer service that attract small businesses to Sendle. Anisa Musmary, the founder of Wanderruff, an online retailer of sustainable dog essentials, says one of the positives is being able to offer customers an eco-friendly delivery service.

“The biggest positive result of using Sendle is it’s at a lower cost for both us and the planet,” she says. “We are thrilled to be able to offer our customers carbon-neutral delivery, which aligns perfectly with our values as a company that cares about doing our best for the planet too. We create dog products from recycled materials and ship them in recycled and recyclable packaging, too. The fact that Sendle helps us maintain our sustainability focus while providing a reliable shipping solution is the icing on the cake.”

As a business owner who also frequently faced issues with Canada Post, Musmary credits Sendle for playing a key role in the success of her small business — regarding them as a “true partner”.

And thanks to Sendle’s new fully-tracked, door-to-door shipping to the US, Wanderuff has been able to tap into the US market.

“Our US customers expect really fast and cheap shipping. As a Canadian company, we couldn’t match our US competitors’ shipping options because it doesn’t cost them anywhere near as much as what we pay here in Canada,” Musmary says. “Sendle’s door-to-door shipping service to the US is a game changer for us since it helps us better compete in the US and grow our business beyond Canadian borders.”

For more information, or to sign up for a free account, head over to Sendle.com 

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