WATCH YOUR SPEND

On Shipping

If you are an ecomm business that ships via Canada Post and use the Small Business Program here is something for you to think about and put in your PLAN for 2023.

I started shipping with Canada Post in 2007. The Small Business Program used to calculate your discounts based on your ANNUAL spend which totally made sense as a business owner.

As you ship more parcels and SPEND MORE money with Canada Post you receive LARGER DISCOUNTS.

The Small Business Program changed quite a few years ago though and they started to calculate your discounts EVERY QUARTER. 

In order to maintain your shipping status you need to make sure you are hitting your numbers every quarter to get the MAXIMUM discount possible and keep the same profit level per shipment.

One of the CHALLENGES with the quarterly assessment is that October to January is your BUSIEST season – which is great! 

What is not so great – is depending on the products you offer – as was the case with Orangefish.ca – June-Sept were our SLOWEST months online.

So what does that MEAN?

It means that as we went into our busiest season we were not at the best shipping discount level possible in order to get the BEST DEAL on shipping out products. 

And, typically during this time of year we would offer FREE SHIPPING or RUN CONTESTS and send out free product – which we were paying more to do.

You would need to run the numbers and MONITOR your discount level to see if this makes sense for you BUT try to do these two things to ensure you get the best shipping discounts with this program.

TAKE ACTION: WATCH YOUR SPEND

1. Two weeks BEFORE the end of each quarter check your spend with Canada Post
2. If you are under the amount you need to maintain or increase your discount CALCULATE the number of shipments you would need to send out to meet the requirements.
3. Select X number of TOP CUSTOMERS to send a gift out to so you can keep your shipping discounts and make a customer delightfully surprised

If your SLOW season is right before your busiest season:

1. Run CONTESTS where you would be shipping items out to customers to help fill in the gap
2. Plan some KILLER SALES to move product and increase your shipping totals
3. Send out FREE GIFTS to customers during this time

Even if you send out 10-20 packages to some of your top customers it might just be WORTH the cost and extra effort to have that bigger discount during your busiest season.

You can then try to stay in the TOP discount level heading into your busiest season and reap the rewards! 

Until next time,