Shipping from UK to Canada - Everything You Need to Know

How much is postage from the UK to Canada? It depends on the size and quantity of the parcels, along with the exact destination to which they should be delivered. What are the most important driving factors for e-commerce in the Canadian market? Delivery speed, product range, and low prices. What industries dominate in cross-border shipping? Clothing, electronics, personal care, and beauty products. How to ship your products to Canada? We will explain everything here, so read on!

How to Ship Your Products from the UK to Canada?

In order to ship parcels from the UK to Canada effectively, you will first need to adjust your shipping strategy. For that, you need to:

• calculate your parcel volume,

• define your optimal shipping speed,

• estimate shipping distances,

• come up with shipping rates and methods that you will offer your customers,

• calculate your shipping costs.

This might be relatively easy if you are already shipping your products to Canada, as in such cases, you have data to support you in the process. But, if you are just entering this market, you might need to rely on predictions based on the information you have – your most commonly sold products vs. the most popular product types in Canada, your regular parcel sizes, etc.

After that, you’ll need to decide on your logistics partners. While Canada is a large country, most citizens live in the southern part of it, so you should collaborate with companies that have the proper infrastructure in these regions.

Also, consider your final mile carriers thoroughly. Since 39% of Canadians like their parcels delivered to P.O. boxes

Shipping from UK to Canada – Market Insights

Now, let’s look at some market insights regarding Canada, which will help you decide on the specifics of your strategy.

How Much Does it Cost to Post/Ship Products to Canada?

How much postage is from the UK to Canada? While we cannot give you the exact prices, since there are too many variables, we can explain what affects the costs.

• Parcel size – weight and dimensions.

• Parcel quantity.

• The exact location in the UK from which the products are sent.

• The exact final destination in Canada.

• Frequency of returns (you need to count them in your shipping costs).

Payment Methods and Parcel Costs

What are the trends regarding payment methods and average parcel costs?

When it comes to payment, the Canadian e-commerce market is dominated by credit card purchases (64% overall). Then, there are PayPal, Alipay, or their equivalents (17%), debit cards (14%), and other methods (5%). In practice, this means that you don’t have to diversify your options too much – including credit and debit cards + PayPal should, in most cases, be enough.

What about the parcel costs? Here, we have yet another interesting trend. Most Canadians purchasing products cross-border opt for high-value, C$70+ orders (47%). Middle-value orders (C$10-C$34 and C$35-C$69) are distributed evenly (23% and 24%, respectively), and just a small percentage of the cross-border sales is made on parcels worth less than C$10 (6%). This means that you should optimise your store to incentivise additional purchases since Canadians are willing to get bigger orders.

Delivery

While you might know the most essential facts about UK e-commerce in 2024 and how the cross-border logistics work there, it can be quite different for Canada. So, what are the trends there?

Well, first of all, fast delivery is the main cross-border driving factor for Canadian shoppers (42%). What’s more, Canadian shoppers desire clear, pre-purchase info on the delivery charges (74%) and free delivery above a certain package value (62%), which is directly linked to the high average value of the purchases made that we mentioned before. Canadians don’t track their parcels as frequently as US consumers, though they still reach a stunning 79% in this aspect.

This means that you need an optimised, reliable logistics solution to cut down the costs and make ground delivery faster, comes with a monitoring system and is delay-free. A solution that we can provide you with at Landmark Global, thanks to our Mercury tracking system, multiple entry gateways (including those in the US), and airline carriers used, plus our partnership with the local carriers.

What about the final destination? Well, most Canadians want their parcels delivered at home, whether at the door or in the mailbox, with 81% and 72% claiming to choose these options, respectively. For comparison, only 39% of Canadian online shoppers ever use post office services, the third most popular option, so at-home delivery is an absolute must.

What are the conclusions here? You need to deliver your packages to a variety of locations. This is why at Landmark Global, we work with different local commercial and postal operators, including the market leader Apple Express – we can get your parcels delivered exactly where your customers want them!

Most popular marketplaces

Marketplaces are a great way to diversify your sales channels…but not in Canada. In this country, 77% of online marketplace sales are made on Amazon, with Walmart, Temu, and eBay in second, having…4% market share each.

We need to mention, though, that eBay has scored a massive decrease compared to 2022 (-44%), and Temu is relatively new, so this might change in the future.

Online shopping devices

While mobile devices are typically most frequently used for online shopping in most markets…it’s not this way in Canada. Surely, 40% of Canadians do use their smartphones for online purchases, but with only 8% using tablets and the rest being shared between desktops (23%) and laptops (28%), computers are still a slightly more popular option.

This means you have quite a bit of a challenge here – your site must be perfect for both mobile devices and PCs. Disregarding either of these will deter hundreds of clients.

Excel in the Canadian Market with Landmark Global

At Landmark Global, we have everything you need to ship your packages from the UK to Canada. Why should you choose us?

• We have 7 storage facilities both on the West and East Coast of the country, to ensure that ground transportation goes smoothly.

• We ship products via aircraft from the UK to Canada daily.

• We utilise several airlines to prevent flight disruptions from affecting your deliveries.

• We offer deliveries six days a week.

• We work with multiple final mile carriers, including postal operators and our own carrier – Apple Express – which covers 60% of the whole population.