The complete guide to Canadian fulfillment services

How do Canadian fulfillment services work to save a business owner money? Can avoiding tariffs really help save money for both the ecommerce entrepreneurs and their customers?

Fortunately, the answer is affirmative to both questions. If a business owner partners with the right logistics organization, everyone can benefit from this symbiotic relationship. 

To begin with, when an ecommerce merchant attempts to cut down on expenses by sourcing supplies and products from a foreign country, they run the risk of garnering an additional 25% in taxes on their imported goods.

What happens as a result? The higher price tag gets passed on to the customer, thus risking the downfall of the business. However, Canadian fulfillment services helps owners to avoid these tariffs.

Why logistics experts use Section 321

In fact, logistics experts employ Section 321, a regulation that pertains to goods imported from China that incur an extra tax. By sorting and categorizing items that are imported from China as exempt from duties and taxes, Canadian fulfillment services save a business that extra 25%. Moreover, the logistics experts would know how to apply Section 321 to qualify a retailer’s order for this exemption.

As an example, they would ensure that the shipment is carefully planned in such a way that multiple orders arrive on separate dates since the law declares that an owner can’t bring in several shipments at once that are worth more than $800.

Because of this deep knowledge about how to correctly invoke Section 321 to save money on tariffs, Canadian fulfillment services can assist with filling out the manifest forms on hard copy or (most likely) electronically. The experts know the exact details to include and how to schedule the shipments along with which items qualify for Section 321 and which ones don’t. Thus, as one can see, this would decrease costs, save time, and ensure that delays in shipping no longer pose a problem since the goods go directly to the customer.

Canadian fulfillment services can help in other areas too

Likewise, another reason small and medium businesses look to Canadian fulfillment services, involves additional assistance in areas such as the storage of the imported products, plus sorting and packaging, and finally direct shipping to the customer.

When first exploring the potential collaboration with a Canadian fulfillment service, one might assume that expenses would increase. After all, how can one save money when partnering with an organization that does so much for the owner. The answer is in the availability of the services provided by Canadian fulfillment, especially since they’re housed in one place.

So, the owner doesn’t have to hire additional employees to complete these tasks, and best of all, he or she wouldn’t lose money on account of filling out forms incorrectly or committing an error in scheduling—both of which could result in tariffs.

Overall, the Canadian fulfillment service is responsible for accepting your orders from the country where the manufacturer is located, picking them up from the harbor, and preparing the products for shipment. Luckily, the owner only has to pay one flat fee for all these perks—another lucrative source of savings.

One other factor that Canadian fulfillment services greatly affect is the ecommerce merchant’s ability to expand its customer base. By virtue of location, Canadian fulfillment services not only ship to the US, but also to Canada.

You can serve your local base in a more efficient way

At this point, business can take advantage of a great opportunity of reaching customers on a more global scale. This area of Canadian fulfillment involves insight into the registration procedures for an import-export program account with the CRA.

Even if a proprietor had to navigate this part of the process solo, the Canadian fulfillment service still offers lower prices for direct shipment to customers in Canada and allowing the entrepreneur the option of paying for overhead expenses in CAD which drives down prices for the customers.

A sizeable number of providers of Canadian fulfillment services have a framework in place to guarantee this shipment and delivery of products that are ordered online regardless of size to all states (and possibly territories) of the US, Canada, and worldwide. Therefore, business owners can continue to serve their local base, but in a more cost-effective and efficient manner thanks to the shipping provided by a Canadian fulfillment center.

Also, serving more clients in all parts of the US if not the world offers the chance of expanding to new markets all because Canadian fulfillment services encompass a multi-faceted manner of assisting small business owners. In turn, these proprietors reap the benefits of working with someone who understands and applies import laws in such a way that’s both logical and ethical. Your Canadian fulfillment partner will also make sure the products get to where they need to be.