Canada Post Strike Leaves Online Sellers Scrambling Amid Carrier Overload
As Canada Post strike stretches into third week, other carriers in the region are struggling under the load of increased volume, leaving online sellers stuck during critical holiday shopping period.
Shopify COO Kaz Nejatian recently retweeted a post from the frustrated COO of gourmet cookie company Félix & Norton who says their whole holiday season has gone up in smoke as even alternate carriers are unable to provide reliable service due to the backlog and increase in volumes.
This is devastating. Canada Post strike is now crippling other carriers.
— Kaz Nejatian (@CanadaKaz) December 5, 2024
Almost certainly, thousands of Canadian businesses will go bankrupt. So cruel. https://t.co/54ttj2xXAh
The thread went on to show that due to the daily limit from Purolator, the company is unable to continue taking orders - and that since Purolator is 91% owned by Canada Post, there may be a conflict of interest or perverse incentives involved.
Source: X/Twitter
Meanwhile, President and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business Dan Kelly says Canadian small business owners have already lost a billion dollars as a result of the strike.
Canadian business owners flooded the replies, sharing examples of the dire situation they are currently facing due to the ongoing strike action, spilling over into delays from UPS and other carriers.
Just got a notice from UPS that they are not picking up for 2-3 days due to backlogs.
— Russell Bird (@russellabird) December 4, 2024
And another local courier has cancelled all local deliveries today due to it being too slippery out.
Please be forgiving of timelines for deliveries on all local businesses. @CFIB
As a small business, I can tell you that shipping a package to BC via Canada Post is approx $26.00. Today I had to ship via FedEx, bill was $48.00.
— Just Looking (@JustLookingcats) December 5, 2024
This is not sustainable & Canada Post & the Union knows it!
And some carriers and postal services in other countries have temporarily suspended service the Canada entirely, since they depend on Canada Post for final delivery that cannot be made at this time.
The US Postal Service is suspending service to Canada effective November 29th.
Effective November 29, 2024, the Postal Service will temporarily suspend international mail acceptance to Canada due to the foreign postal operator indicating that they are unable to process or deliver international mail or services because of the ongoing national strike by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
Customers are asked to refrain from mailing items addressed to the following country, until further notice: • Canada
This service disruption affects Priority Mail Express International® (PMEI), Priority Mail International® (PMI), First-Class Mail International® (FCMI), First-Class Package International Service® (FCPIS), International Priority Airmail® (IPA), International Surface AirLift® (ISAL), Commercial ePacket® (CeP), and M-Bag® items.
In the UK, both Royal Mail and ParcelForce are also suspending service to Canada.
How is the Canada Post strike impacting your ecommerce business? Are you finding other carriers are cost prohibitive or not reliable due to backlog from the extra volume? Let us know in the comments below!
much too complicated now for a few pounds a year in sales
They just "killed the golden goose". I imported my 1500+ eBay items to there since it was free. Turned out just to be a lot of work for (maybe) 3 sales a month.
The total fees were higher there before this new $20 a month cost structure, even though they claimed otherwise. When one factors in the 3.49% + 49 cent PayPal processing fees so one can get paid, there went a good chunk of profit.
Now they have boosted their commission to 11%, and still claim that the cost to sell there is less than eBay's. And remember that this does not include payment processing. WHY?? Makes no sense at all.
On eBay, for $27.95 a month, I sell over 100 items there every 30-31 days. Makes ZERO SENSE to pay a site $20 to make just a couple of sales. Since they now allow 50 "free listings", I have trimmed my offerings back to just below that amount. Also had to raise all my prices accordingly to absorb the extra selling costs.
The people who run the show here obviously didn't realize that eBay sellers who imported their listings gave the site a great depth of product, which would attract more buyers. Now that will be gone, because NO ONE will pay them $20 monthly for little to no sales.
The site also has technical issues that they refuse to fix. It was a decent resource to enable the occasional sale, but they will soon be stacked onto the eCommerce trash heap of companies that THOUGHT they could compete with Amazon and eBay. Etsy may also suffer the same fate soon, as many sellers are also leaving their site due to high fees, website issues, and poor management.
Basic eComm rule here: When you do not carry any inventory, and sellers are solely responsible for supplying your site with the goods offered, DON'T BITE THE HAND WHICH FEEDS YOU!!!