ecommerce US to Canada

[jwitt98]

Does Anyone have any experience with this? I would like to expand my business to include Canadian customers, but I'm not sure what all is involved.
For instance, how is the currency translation handled?
What is involved in shipping across the border?
What other issues might I have to face?

Any helpful tips or information would be appreciated.

[roban]

I ship to Canada or at least my drop shippers do. My shopping cart does the currency conversion for me and I have my shipping settings set to charge more for Canadian shipping. I also tell my customers that shipping might take 2 to 3 weeks depending on customs. Sometimes it only takes 5 to 7 days as opposed to 3 to 5 days for US delivery.

You should have no problems setting this up for yourself. Contact Canadian post and they will give you more direction.

[itHighway]

Currency: For this you need to have a back-end administration section with the option of changing Cand $ rate of exchange every day. You can get the updated ROE from CNN.com.

You can integrate real time UPS/Fedex/Candian post shipping rate calculator with your web site.

[jwitt98]

Thanks for the replies.
Do you know by chance how or if this would work with Yahoo merchant solutions? Their tech support doesn't seem to know much about this.
Also, do you have to deal with customs paperwork when shipping UPS?

[balsamsue]

Hi,
I shipped dried balsam to a woman in Canada recently. As it was an herb, I didn't know if there would be a problem.
Do you have a shopping cart? If so, that should figure the currency exchange for you and/or paypal.
I filled out a green form at the PO for the shipping. It didn't cost her much to get it there, and it arrived in 5 days. She said it had not been opened and box was in good shape.
So, that's my experience with shipping to Canada so far...
Hope this helps.
Sue
www.vtbalsam.com

[itHighway]

Thanks for the replies.
Do you know by chance how or if this would work with Yahoo merchant solutions? Their tech support doesn't seem to know much about this.
Also, do you have to deal with customs paperwork when shipping UPS?

mm.. not sure if this would work with YMS.

No shipping to canada does not involve any custom paperwork unless you are seding some restricted goods or merchandise. You only have to fill a simple form asking some basic info.

[TipPro]

It depends on the value of the merchandise you are shipping. If your merchandise values over $1,600 Canadian dollars you must include a NAFTA certificate if it is under you must include a statement than can be found here... https://www.ups.com/content/us/en/shipping/international/documents/intl_forms/nafta_origin.html

There is more you can do to make sure you shipments to Canada never get delayed by customs. Call your UPS representative for more details.

To start you may want to consider not worrying about the currency conversions. Let your Canadian customers deal with it for now.

In the review section a few days back there was a company that dealt with currency conversions for Web sites... you may want to pm him for more details.