Hi folks

I've got a t-shirt screen-printing company and we're in the midst of setting up our web site and I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction re. affordable shipping (national, US, international). I looked at Can Post's prepaid envelopes but it's way too expensive. Ideally it would be nice to have a bunch of ready to go pre-paid envelopes and small boxes ready to go.

What have you store owners used in the past? Who's reliable?

Thanks for your help!

Alex

That's the problem with a Monopoly,
... there is no other alternative,
.... and Canada Post KNOWS it !

I've had this problem often too..

Not much I can about it,
except trying to mail as much stuff from the US as I can...

Ogdensburg NY is only about 40 minutes away from Ottawa
and there is a UPS Store there (...catering mostly to Canadians... )
which I go to to pick-up supplies...

The post office is close-by so I ship as much stuff from there as I can.

It's about HALF the cost of shipping with Canada Post.

You could go to the US to ship to there, but keep in mind that you would be spending at least $20 in gas and 2 hours to do so.

There are a couple of tactics that I see with shipping:

For one, you could hide the bulk of the shipping cost in the price of the shirts.  I would rather pay $5 shipping on a $10 shirt, then $10 shipping on a $5 shirt.
Secondly, you could advertise the true shipping rate and try to encourage people to buy more than one shirt to offset the shipping costs.
Or thirdly, combine the two.  Fold some of the shipping costs into the shirts but offer 'free shipping' on larger orders.

In other words, don't kill yourself trying to find the best shipping rate, accept the rates and build them into your business case.