As the Canada Post strike drags on, small businesses are struggling with higher-cost alternatives for shipping while they try to keep customers.
Melissa Drake, owner of Head-2-Toe Tallow, an online beef tallow shop in Rocky Mountain House, Alta., says she has noticed that buyers are more hesitant to purchase items online during the strike.
“I’ve been getting lots of messages from potential customers asking if I’m using a courier for shipping, so I believe customers are hesitant to order online from small businesses,” she said.
Victoria Watson, owner of Claimed Vintage, a vintage store and Etsy shop in Port Elgin, Ont., too has noticed shopping hesitancy and attributes it to the increased cost of shipping amidst the strike.
Watson says that, even though her shop is affected, fully online businesses that operate through Etsy or Poshmark, are hit hardest by the strike.
Since Nov. 15, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have been on a national strike, which has halted mail delivery and processing, including packages, cheques and passports.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which represents 97,000 businesses in Canada, says nearly eight in 10 small businesses rely on Canada Post, with 75 per cent of small businesses saying that they will be hurt by the work stoppage.
Many small businesses are turning to other, often more expensive carriers this holiday season.
Drake says since switching to UPS, shipping costs have increased drastically.
“Shipping costs through UPS were up 300 per cent on some orders versus what I was paying through Canada Post,” she said.
Drake says early on the strike she had to refund a few orders because “shipping was more than the orders.”
She says she started using ClickShip the second week of the strike and her average shipping cost decreased from around $25 with UPS to $15 with ClickShip.
Like Drake, Watson says the biggest impact of the strike is that it has caused shipping costs to increase.
Watson says the price difference between Canada Post and UPS is minimal, but when shipping within Canada, UPS is slightly pricier. Shipping to the U.S., however, is a different story.
“The cost to send anything to the U.S. with UPS is about double, but there aren’t many alternatives where we are located,” Watson wrote in an email.
She says in the beginning they were paying the shipping difference themselves, but after a week of the strike and no news from Canada Post, they updated their shipping costs on Etsy.
Julie Saunders, owner of Witch Chest, an Ottawa-based witch supply store, has also switched to UPS. Typically, she gets five orders a week, though she expects that to go up during the holiday season.
She says the price difference between Canada Post and UPS is marginal and depends on which province you are shipping items to. But with UPS she pays extra for someone to pick up her packages, instead of dropping it off for free at a Canada Post mail box.
UPS’ next-day pick up is adding a few extra dollars to orders as well as increasing the time it takes for customers to receive orders, Saunders says.
Another issue for small businesses amid this strike is shipping to P.O. boxes.
“Unfortunately, those are owned by Canada Post,” Saunders said. “Hopefully, the customers understand where we’re coming from and can give us another option to ship somewhere else to a friend or a family member, that’s not a P.O. box.”
Drake also says she has a backlog of orders to ship to P.O. boxes once the strike ends.
Sisters Mart, a holistic market in the Glebe, is finding the strike is disrupting its supply chain.
Sara Smith, the manager, says they are waiting on shipments that haven’t been sent out or have been sent and are stuck in the mail.
“Our matcha order is stuck in Montreal right now because they prefer to ship with Canada Post,” she said.
Now, with the strike dragging on, some small businesses who may have been hopeful for a quick resolution, are losing faith.
“We have no idea how long the strike will go on, but … we are not optimistic,” Watson said. “If the strike goes on for a month, the holiday rush will be over [based on UPS’ deadline for holiday delivery of Dec. 13] and most Canadians will be used to seeing the increase in shipping charges.”
“When the strike ends, we are assuming the cost of shipping with Canada Post will increase anyway, but we will be accustomed to the service from UPS.”
