International Orders

For a long time we have offered shipping to Canada.  I grew up in Alaska and remember not being able to order things because the companies didn't ship to us.  So when I started a business, I knew I wanted to offer shipping to Alaska and Hawaii, and Canada just seemed like the natural next step.

Over the years, I have had great customers in Canada who I have happily shipped baby carriers to.  But after recently speaking with some Canadian retailers, I have decided to stop shipping to Canada. The decision to stop shipping to Canada was not an easy one, but something I feel is the right thing to do.

Canadian retailers pay duties and shipping when they import their products to Canada.  This is often reflected in their pricing and some brands actually do not allow their US retailers to ship their brand to Canada for that very reason.  A Canadian retailer that pays these costs in order to supply their local customers with products can not compete with the US prices that do not reflect those fees.  Often, an individual can import a package without paying duties and customers will order from the US hoping they will get a cheaper price.  And a company like mine that was offering flat rate shipping only exacerbates the issue.

So, after much consideration, we have decided to encourage our Canadian and international customers to shop locally.  We don't want to prevent our customers from having access to certain products that may not be available in Canada, so if there is something unique to our store that you would like to order, we would be more than happy to ship it to you.  But we will no longer offer shipping to Canada through our web store and Canadian customers will have to contact us directly to place an order just like our other international customers.  They will also be responsible to pay the entire shipping cost for their order as well as any duties they may be charged.

Our goal is not to alienate anyone, and I understand this will hurt my business by costing me sales.  But I feel strongly that we should support the retailers in Canada that have imported carriers at no small cost in order to make sure their customers have access to a variety of baby carriers waiting to ship.

Here's a list of babywearing companies in Canada:

Tadpoles & Butterflies (Alberta)
Kissable Baby (Alberta)
Milkface (Ontario)
GorgeousBaby (British Columbia)
Precious Earth (Saskatchewan)

More to come!

Thank you all for your understanding and support!