Next up: Innovation Delivered
Join us on August 7th for Innovation Delivered, a virtual ecommerce event with over 40 speakers across 30 sessions. Catch practical insights, product previews, and more.
Effortless returns and exchanges
Turn returns into revenue with effortless exchanges, a branded customer portal, and centralized tools that cut manual work and unify returns across every channel.
New features that fuel growth
Power growth at every stage of fulfillment. Our enhanced tools for inventory, returns, and analytics help you scale smarter—from order to outcome.
Who We Help
use cases
Products
Core Features
Featured Integrations
Integrations
Resources
Help Center
Finding the cheapest way to ship to Canada is important for any growing business. Whether you ship to Canada with UPS, FedEx, or USPS, there are many affordable options for getting your items cross-border. In fact, ShipStation gives you up to 89% on international shipping costs! If you’re looking to break into a new market, Canadian consumers are ready for you.
Other than China, Canada is the US’s largest trading partner. And since China has a population that is 40 times larger (1.4 billion more citizens) than Canada. It is also the easiest international market for American businesses to break into. We exchange over $500,000,000,000 in goods with Canada each year, don’t you want to be part of that? Because of this close relationship, shipping across the border to Canada is not particularly difficult. Furthermore, the US is the largest trading partner for Canada—accounting for 75% of all of their exports. So, basically, if you properly document your contents, and don’t ship banned items, you should be fine shipping to Canada from the US.
Canada is an affordable international market to break into. A large portion of its population is near their southern border to the US and despite packages having to pass through customs and potentially being handed off to a different carrier, it is quick, too.
The USPS and UPS both offer affordable ways to ship to Canada for light parcels under 5 lbs. Once they reach the border, USPS hands the parcels over to Canada Post (the Canadian equivalent of USPS) for final delivery.
First Class Mail International is the cheapest way to send parcels to Canada. Keep in mind, FCMI does not have an estimated delivery timeframe. So, you can expect it take about 2-3 weeks to make final delivery. And, the weight limit is 4.4 lbs.
If you need a lightweight parcel delivered in a timely manner, USPS Priority Mail International is a good choice. Priority Mail International promises a delivery timeframe of 6–10 days to Canada. Priority Mail Express International has a delivery timeframe of 3–5-days when shipping to Canada.
UPS has great options for getting your parcels to Canada. They offer a range of services—economical and express—when you ship to Canada. When you ship UPS on ShipStation, you can reach more than 90% of Canadian customers in five business days or less from most U.S. cities. Cost-effective services that are similar to UPS® Standard shipping to Canada are USPS Priority International and FedEx International Ground.
As with all international shipments, parcels shipped to Canada require customs forms. For the USPS, the customs declarations appear on the label. So, there is no additional documentation you need to provide beyond the label. But you do need to provide a customs description of each of the contents within.
FedEx and UPS require commercial invoices for international shipments. While these forms are required, it is possible to submit them electronically via EDI and ETD. For example, with UPS Paperless™ Invoice, UPS sends customs agencies the required information of your package without you having to print and attach documents to your package. This saves you time when preparing packages for international shipping and ensures confidentiality of invoice and package information.
Canada does have a few regulations around guaranteeing public safety around imported goods. The CBSA (Canadian Border Services Agency) screens mail for trade facilitation, tariff rating, and examining for potentially prohibited or controlled goods. Parcels valued at over $20 CAD can be searched and have a handling fee applied to the end consumer (or payor if selected). You can also prepay customs duties and taxes on your customers’ behalf with Delivery Duties Paid (or DDP) through ShipStation.
Be aware that Canada Post will not ship certain items, so if you ship USPS, these banned items will not be able to be handed off to Canada Post.
For a full list of prohibited items, read this
ShipStation has partnerships with the world’s most trusted carriers. These partnerships provide you with a simple way to buy labels and manage multiple shipping accounts with a single source known as ShipStation Carrier Services.
ShipStation Carrier Services lets you access savings of up to:
*Discounts off UPS daily rates. Rates are limited to shipping from the U.S. only. Rates and any applicable discounts are subject to change at any time without notice.
James Messer is a copywriter specializing in shipping, logistics, and ecommerce.