tee1

But over 80% of Canadians live in urban areas and major distribution centres are in Major city's with easy access to the postal service. I mean almost 40% of Canadians live in Ontario alone. My point is that Canada is hugh but populations are very concentrated so for me there really is no excuse for taking almost a week to dispatch something when your shipping from Toronto. You can't do anything once goods are in the hand's of the post service but as a business you can make sure it get's in the system asap.

Canada post is expensive but the prices are what they are, if it cost's $40 dollars to ship from Toronto to Van or whatever then that's the going rate and I can't do anything about it. I just think that as there's no massive online shopping culture people don't even have the option of buying online or using ebay and paying said postage. Just my opinion of course Maybe I'll start an online business and can eat my own words

dbd33

I think it's fair to describe Canada is a vast uninhabited wasteland. There are, of course, some people in Canada but most of them are clustered together in the few bits south of the extremes of the US border. Given that those parts of the country are (relatively) warm and flat I think the notion that the country loves skiing is dubious in the extreme. It's easier and cheaper to go on a (downhill) skiing hoilday from London than from Toronto so one my as well suppose than England loves skiing. In fact, of course, skiing in either case is for the young and the rich, it's not a participation sport for the masses like football in the UK or curling in Canada. I'm not surprised there aren't many skis for sale, try ebay.ch or whatever it's called.

iaink

But Canada Post has to serve the entire area, hence high infrastructure costs to reach the outposts that everyone has to pay for. Kind of like the LCBO...


This discussion is somewhat misleading. Canadians that use ebay use ebay.com, not ebay.ca

If you are going to list and have to deal with shipping expense anyway, you might as well sell and buy in the larger marketplace. There is more than one set of skis on ebay.com, thats for sure. The vast majority of "US only" sellers are happy enough to sell to Canada, you just have to ask.

britsnake

We talk about ebay.com ad ebay.ca, but really there is only one ebay.

I am still using the same ebay account that I used in the UK, and I often buy stuff from both the US and the UK, but if I can find it in canada.

Shipping is often quicker and cheaper from the UK than it is from the West Coast.

What annoys me is that items often sit for a few days in the post office beofre they start moving.

Custom charges are a bit hit and miss and the post men never give change.

iaink

ebay.ca only shows canadian listings and US listings set up as available to Canada, so a lot of US product does not show as most sellers there dont even consider the possibility of international interest. The reality for me has been that maybe 9 times out of 10 when Ive asked if a US seller would make an exception and ship to Canada (USPS), they have accomodated me.

For that reason I never check ebay.ca, very few canadian listing wont show on ebay.com

Steve_

I personally think the reason why is because you can't use your debit card on-line in Canada, because InterAC doesn't support it, so you have to use paypal or a credit card, which a lot of people don't have.

I find I get better luck using the facebook local classifieds.

Also things do change from place to place, just because website A is popular in one country doesn't mean it will be popular in another, for example workopolis is more popular than monster in Canada.

One interesting statistic is that provinces usually have more trade with neighbouring States than they do with neighbouring provinces.

iaink

Paypal can link to a bank account, so is just like a debit card effectively for the consumer.

Interac online does exist, its just not widely used I guess, and its a bit clunky. There are a limited number of stores that accept it, and 4 of the major banks support it, but frankly paypal is easier (if you trust them)

It seems natural to me that people do more business with neighbouring states, its nearly always cheaper to buy stuff down south, even if you have to pay taxes at the border. If you can do it duty free its a no brainer.

Steve_

That and we ship a lot of oil south. And there used to be a lot of trash going from Toronto into Michigan although I think that's stopped now.

$1.6 billion of trade every day with the US.

Novocastrian

Yes, we sell it on eBay now.

tee1

My example of skis is only one of many things not listed to buy when I have looked on Ebay.ca.
It's a different argument but it's actually pretty easy to go skiing if you live in BC as apposed to Toronto which is what my perspective is based on. It is an expensive sport but by no means just for the rich. I am certainly not rich
I like other use ebay.com for some things but would much prefer it if I didnt have to worry about the possibility of getting stung with tax or brokerage should a seller ship with ups etc.

laser558

A report was published just the other day relating to Internet trading in Canada. As a country, they rank I think it was 8th in the world and the guy on CTV said that is likely to drop to 12th. The UK came first, followed by the US. It does illustrate how behind Canada is as an internet player. I have looked at buying things in Canada only to find the postage is more than the item. I do use Ebay for little items from China. I first check them on the UK version, find something for 99 pence but then on the Canadian version, it's 99 cents! A small result perhaps?

Souvy

A couple of years ago my neighbour found an old advertising sign (gas station) at his cottage. These things are collected and it was in perfect nick, thus quite valuable. He did try ebay but found that shipping was going to cost almost as much as the thing was worth (several thousand).

Canadians are heavy internet users but mostly to check the weather and hockey results. There is a lot of catching-up to do when it comes to sensible stuff, like banking. The level of security involved in our online banking in Canada is risible compared to what I have to go through with my UK accounts. Let's face it, Chip & PIN is still a new idea here and even some of the major retailers are not using it yet. I recently asked Barclays to upgrade me to PIN Sentry, and then tried to explain to my wife what it is. I may as well have been talking in Greek.

My particular bugbear is Air Canada. The website will simply not accept the fact that I live in Canada and my Amex card doesn't. That is pathetic. Trying to book by phone in Canada is a nightmare. One gives up after an hour or so on hold. Last time I booked a flight (Ottawa-Vancouver), I used the UK reservations number (which is in India, natch) and was sorted in minutes.

AC would do well to take lessons from Porter, which inhabits a different world when it comes to customer service.

Steve_

I think the internet is actually one area where Canada is ahead of most countries, this is more about the usual problems, crappy postal service, brokerage fees on imports, InterAC being crap and so on.

Also one of the main things to do during the winter is to go shopping, malls are packed during the winter, so if you've been to the mall you don't shop on-line as much. And crossing the border to shop too, because then you avoid brokerage fees - and taxes too, if you're under the exempt limit. I even know other Canadians who have PO boxes in the US and they have everything shipped there and cross the border to pick up their shipments.

I've said since I lived in Canada that the national pastime isn't hockey, it's about moaning about how much more things cost than in the US, just stand in line at the post office.

US businesses don't do themselves any favours though by not catering to the Canadian market, it's very rare I come across a US company that is GST/PST registered in Canada, which means no brokerage fees. I think it would be helpful if someone made a list.

JonboyE

I don't enjoy trying to defend AC but this is not unique to them. Last year I had a hell of a job trying to buy a one way ticket from London to Vancouver from BA on line with a Canadian credit card. Visa and MasterCard no chance. Amex made it work eventually. Then just last night I was buying him an internal flight in India on line and had all the same problems.

Similar problems with clients paying me with a UK credit card.

I don't think it the airline's fault. More the credit card companies' security software.

CanadaJimmy

Just to echo what everyone else said, it's postage costs. Even buying things from Amazon.ca it's enough to stop you even bothering. Now for gadgets I just use DealExtreme (free shipping from HK) and for everything else there's XSCargo (got a Netgear router from them yesterday for $20) and Craigslist. NCIX is good for computer components and they will pricematch anything you find online. If I absolutely have to get something online I just get on the US Amazon and shipped to my friend's postbox just across the U.S. Border in Blaine.

When I had to ship gifts to my family at Xmas I went across to the US and shipped them at a US Post Office with USPS, which was nearly a third of the cost CanadaPost wanted.

I always appreciated Royal Mail even when I was back in the UK for their reasonable costs, CanadaPost just makes me realize even more.