Postage to Canada

andrewsi

I'll admit to just being nosy here, but are there any high volume sellers posting to Canada who can give me an idea of how much the postage rates are?

I'm currently in Canada, and have ordered a couple of books from sellers on amazon.ca, who claim that they post from within the country. Both times, the book has been sent via airmail from the UK.

That seems like it's not a coincidence, but I can't believe that it costs less to post a book from the UK than it would be to post it from within the country, especially considering that the postage credit comes in at $6.90, which is a little over UKP 4 - the last book was 700 grams, and the Royal Mail website claims the cheapest airmail price is UKP 8.70, and surface mail is UKP 5.50.

Surely the discount for business sellers can't be that much, though it clearly is, otherwise the sellers wouldn't keep doing it.

(It seems that the price to send the same book within Canada comes in at $9.00, so it's already cheaper to post surface mail from the UK....)

F&L

The Royal Mail give large discounts if you sort items by destination and have a minimum weight - the link to the rates is here http://www.royalmail.com/small-medium-business/international-business/international-contract-services-portfolio/international-destination-sort/prices

All sellers with a Royal Mail account get some sort of discount, for instance I would be able to send a 700g item to Canada for £5.71.

Amazon have fixed postage credits so all sellers adjust the item price to allow for the postage based on the weight. Is the seller drop shipping? Some companies have either free or low postage rates for international postage.

andrewsi

Thanks for that - it looks like they are dropshipping (the postage label included the name of a shop that's definitely not the company I bought off.)

I've got another book to order this week, so I'll see where this one is routed from....

soolin

You can look at Royal Mail rates here:

http://www.royalmail.com/price-finder

However I would buy before the end of this month as our postage in many categories is going up a great deal.and depending on what world zone you become you may find the postage too high to pay in future.

andrewsi

soolin wrote: »

However I would buy before the end of this month as our postage in many categories is going up a great deal.and depending on what world zone you become you may find the postage too high to pay in future.

I'm only paying the $6.90 for delivery within Canada, though; so if Royal Mail prices are going up, it's not going to be a problem for me.

Well, except for making me wonder even more how a seller can be making money by posting a book internationally while netting around UKP4.