Retailers fill shipments as strike continues
Niagara stores ask online buyers for patience
Beau Chapeau is being wooed.
The Niagara-on-the-Lake hat shop has been getting calls every other week from private delivery companies, wanting to take over its online shipments as Canada Post continues to strike.
“They’re licking their lips,” says Kevin Neufeld, owner of the Niagara-on-the-Lake hat shop. “They’re going, ‘We can find new customers here’.”
Neufeld has stuck with Canada Post as its strike continues, but he’s warned online customers their purchases could take a little longer than usual to arrive.
“It’s something we’re trying not be be too upset about,” he said on Monday, as staff at the Queen Street store were packing up 10 online orders from the weekend. “We’ve been through this a couple of times already.
“Every time it happens though, we do shop around.” Niagara retailers that offer online shopping are asking customers around the world to be patient as the Canada Post strike heads into the holiday season.
Without any guarantees for delivery times, some are crossing their fingers and offering up other alternatives for the short term.
Neufeld said what keeps his business using Canada Post is their expedited service, which he said is almost as fast as UPS and in some cases faster and cheaper.
Shipping costs can make the difference between an online sale or someone abandoning their cart.
“We run our shipping at a deficit constantly, because we try to make it as affordable for our customers as possible,” he said, adding Beau Chapeau offers $12.50 flat rate shipping in Canada. “The shipping number has to be palatable to convert a sale.”
Hat boxes are big, with dimensions equivalent to a 10-pound box.
“It’s really important that when you purchase something it arrives to you in perfect condition. We don’t cram anything into an envelope. Your un-boxing experience has to be perfect,” he said.
“That’s always been tough for us, but we have to fight with American websites that have a shipping infrastructure that is so much more efficient than Canada. They have 10 times the population, 10 times the roads and 10 times the infrastructure. We struggle to keep our shipping rates competitive.”
He said when Canada Post increases its rates, which he expects will happen after the strike, the store will have to reassess.
Lousje and Bean, a downtown St. Catharines fashion store on James Street, has online shipments going out everyday with Canada Post.
“It definitely is affecting us,” said co-owner Tessa Oort, explaining they normally do a twoday expedited shipping service. “We’re giving them the heads up once they’re ordering that it will be delayed.”
Oort said they are also sticking with Canada Post through the strike because of shipping costs, which allow Lousje and Bean to charge a standard $12 shipping rate. “Prices are much more competitive and it’s also sticking true to Canadian companies, keeping it Canadian,” she said.
If a customer really wants an item earlier, she said they will send it off through Purolator or FedEx.
Great Estates Niagara, the hub for Jackson Triggs and Inniskillin’s wine sales in Niagara-onthe-Lake, was looking into the possibility Monday of offering consumers a secondary option for shipping on its website.
Wine club manager Marcie Mlot said they will continue to use Canada Post but may add an option for customers when they check out that allows them an alternative like FedEx at their expense.
Mlot said the wineries originally shipped with a private company but there weren’t enough depot locations to handle the orders so they switched to Canada Post. The next largest wine club shipment of the year is going out in December.
“Obviously we hope things are going to be resolved by then,” she said.