Canada Post Shipping Rates for Your eCommerce Store

Canada-Post-Shipping-Rates-for-Your-eCommerce-Store

Canada Post offers competitive and affordable shipping rates depending on your budget and timeline. You can decide which one works for your business and your customers by reading up on their costs and traits.

Most of us know that Canada Post has adapted well to the growth of eCommerce. Especially over the past year, mail delivery has still been trusted in the hands of Canada Post. As it compares to other shipping carriers, the costs and offerings that Canada Post has are competitive and often win out over other options.

84% of online shoppers will always make a decision to buy based on free and fast shipping. And 30% have also confirmed that they will actually add more items to their cart to qualify for free shipping. With these statistics in mind, it’s no doubt that as an eCommerce business, you want to make sure your customer experience includes reliable, fast, and either cheap or free shipping.

Making the right decision on which Canada Post shipping rates to use for your eCommerce store is an important one. Here’s a quick overview of the various shipping rates to help you make a better-informed decision that’s best for your business, output, and overall budget. Remember, by integrating Canada Post with PluginHive, you can automate the entire shipping process for your customers based on weight, dimensions, destination, and more.

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Canada Post Regular Parcel

Estimated Delivery: Regular Parcel provides an estimated shipping time from up to 2 business days (local shipments) to nine business days for national shipments if the shipment is coming from a Major Urban Centre. Non-Major and Remote/Northern Centres can see a shipment time of up to 14 business days. Regular Parcels do not have an on-time delivery guarantee.

For Canada Post Regular Parcels, you will either need to print shipping labels according to the weight of your parcel or use stamps, which can cost up to $5.47 for a 500g envelope. Packages work a little differently. Sending a 2.2-pound Regular Parcel package to Ottawa (H3 Rate Code) would be about $20.41, only around $13 cheaper than Canada Post XpressPost.

A regular Parcel is a good option for small businesses that don’t have too many shipments going out at once and can’t benefit from bulk orders of pre-paid or other arrangements. Usually, customers are more expectant of a longer delivery for a cheaper fee. Most parcels only take a minimum amount of days, especially if a parcel is going only from one major city to another. The only time delays can be expected and Canada Post XpressPost might be a smarter idea is if you are working with the Christmas deadlines during Canada Post’s busiest season.

Canada Post XpressPost

Estimated Delivery: Canada Post XpressPost offers next-day delivery for most local and regional deliveries coming from Major Urban Centres (such as Mississauga). National shipments can expect a two-day arrival. Non-Major and Remote/Northern Centres can expect to have their shipments delivered anywhere between 2 and 8 business days. Usually, it’s closer to the sooner mark.

Canada Post XpressPost is the only shipping option that has a “Deliver to Post Office Option.”

Sending a 2.2-pound package to Ottawa (H3 Rate Code) would be about $33.27. Prepaid XpressPost envelopes and boxes can be purchased in bulk from post offices across the country. If your products don’t go over a specific weight, this is a good option to keep costs consistent. You may need to create a commercial account and/or arrangement with Canada Post to get these prices. A Regional prepaid package up to 1.36kg (just under 3 pounds) is $18.05 and up to 5kg (11 pounds) is $24.35.

Shipping via XpressPost USA has its own cost schedule you can refer to. Canada Post XpressPost shipping rates are calculated according to size and dimensions, but also its origin province and destination.

Origin codes are as follows: Zone A: Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick. Zone B: Quebec, Ontario. Zone C: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia. Zone D: Yukon, Northwest Territories. Once you have your Origin Code, you can check the schedule to see what the overall Rate Code would be based on the destination province.

So, based on this calculation, sending a 2.2-pound parcel from Ontario to Florida would be $34.97. A price worth the cost if you are promising quick delivery. These costs are also directly related to purchasing from Canada Post. When integrating with shipping automation software, there are usually discounts offered for different shipping carriers.

Canada Post Priority

Estimated Delivery: Canada Post Priority shipping is the fastest shipping available, and is usually at its destination by the next day – even for national shipments. If packages are being shipped from Non-Major or Northern/Remote Centres, then the package can arrive anywhere from two to eight business days later.

The cost of Canada Post Priority shipping within Canada depends on where the package is heading. Fees start at about $14.73 and can go upwards to $230.35. Sending a 2.2-pound package to Ottawa (H3 Rate Code) would be about $33.27.You can find out what the expected Priority shipping fee would be based on weight, dimensions, and destination on the Canada Post website.

If you’re shipping to the USA or any other country via Priority Worldwide, you will need to compare the Rate Code of the destination to its price. If you have Canada Post Web Services or another Shipping Automation application, this will be done for you. To ship a 2.2-pound package to the United States, for example, the cost will be about $71.33. Remember though that this is Priority shipping and the package will get there within only a few days.

It’s important to note that being a contract customer and purchasing envelopes prepaid can lower the cost of shipping in some situations (and not in others. For example, prepaid will not be beneficial if you have packages that need parcels of different sizes and weights). You can also integrate Web Services to provide your customers real-time costs of shipping for their purchases.


Canada Post Domestic Shipping Rates – Summed Up

Services Weight Delivery days Price
Canada Post Regular Parcel
Up to 30kg
2 to 9 business days
Starts from $9.67
Canada Post XpressPost
Up to 30kg
2 to 8 business days
Starts from $10.61
Canada Post Priority Shipping
Up to 30kg
Next day
Starts from $22.01

Canada Post International Shipping Rates – Summed Up

Services Weight Delivery days Price
Canada Post Priority Worldwide
2kg
2 to 3 business days
Starts from $147.64
Canada Post XpressPost
2kg
4 to 7 business days
Starts from $59.65
Canada Post International Parcel – Air
2kg
4 to 7 business days
Starts from $49.36

Canada Post Shipping Rates: Comparison with top shipping companies

  • Domestic Shipping rates comparison

Let’s do a quick comparison on the domestic Canada Post shipping rates and the other top shipping companies; FedEx, UPS, and Purolator.

For comparing the domestic shipping rates, we have chosen to ship within St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador (A1A 0A4 to A1A 0B3). The package weight is 2kgs and the dimensions are 20x20x20 cms without any extra services like insurance, delivery signature, etc.

Shipping Carrier
Services
Delivery days
Price
Canada Post
Regular Parcel
3 Business Days
$20.04
XpressPost
2 Business Days (Guaranteed)
$24.22
Priority Mail
2 Business Days (Guaranteed)
$42.10
FedEx
Ground
Upto 6 Business Days
$15.53
Priority Overnight
Next Day
$67.41
2-Day
Upto 2 business Days
$60.84
Purolator
Ground
2 business days or more
$33.17
Express Guaranteed
End of next business day
$33.74
Express 10:30 AM Guaranteed
By 10:30 AM next business day
$52.60
UPS
Express
Next business day
$64.22
Expedited
Next business day
$48.61
Express Saver
Next business day
$51.68

Note: All the shipping rates displayed are from the respective carrier rates calculator.


  • International Shipping rates comparison

Now, let’s do a quick comparison on the international Canada Post shipping rates and the other top shipping companies; FedEx, UPS, Purolator, and DHL.

For comparing the international shipping rates, we have chosen to ship from St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador (A1A 0A4) to Los Angeles, California (90001). The package weight is 5 lbs and the dimensions are 10x10x10 inches without any extra services like insurance, delivery signature, etc.

Shipping Carrier
Services
Delivery days
Price
Canada Post
Expedited Parcel USA
9 Business Days
$41.52
XpressPost USA
7 Business Days (Guaranteed)
$63.55
FedEx
International Ground
Upto 14 Business Days
$43.44
International Priority
Upto 7 Business Days
$216.39
International Economy
Upto 9 business Days
$145.74
Purolator
Ground USA
Upto 10 business Days
$55.45
Express USA Guaranteed
Upto 5 business Days
$244.72
Express USA 10:30 AM Guaranteed
Upto 5 business Days
$257.65
UPS
Standard
Upto 14 Business Days
$44.97
Worldwide Expedited
Upto 10 Business Days
$170.58
Worldwide Express
Upto 7 Business Days
$203.00
DHL Express
Express Worldwide
Upto 7 Business Days
from $114-$125

Note: All the shipping rates displayed are from the respective carrier rates calculator.


Being able to handle multiple orders through a Shipping automation application, like PluginHive, will ensure you can keep up with your growing business. Whether you use WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce and PrestaShop, PluginHive has a solution that will work with your business.

Contact PluginHive Support now to find out the best solution for your eCommerce business.