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Open ecomm store in US or Canada...?

by davidg109
5 replies
  • ECOMMERCE
    • |
Hi folks,

Hoping to get some input on this one because I've Googled this to death and not really finding an answer.

I'm currently at the research stage of choosing a product to dropship and currently evaluating about 50 items.

One of my criteria is not to go with a product that is ultra-competitive.

The big question I have is this -

If a particular product is overly competitive in the US but not facing anywhere the competition in Canada, would it not make sense to set up a Canadian domain and target Canadian traffic as a way to tighten up the niche?

If this does make sense, my only concern though is finding at least two dropshippers in Canada, as I know us Canadians are pretty sensitive about our crazy taxes they slap us with whenever something crosses the border (as a recent example, brokerage and duty for $90 vitamins I had ordered cost $25!).

Any input on this would be really appreciated... I feel like I'm missing a piece of the puzzle on this one.

David
#canada #ecomm #open #store
  • Profile picture of the author tenaciouscreations
    Finding a drop shipping company in Canada can be difficult, even more difficult depending on what the product actually is. For some reason our shipping rates here in Canada are exorbitant compared with those in the states.

    However if your niche isn't really filled here in Canada it can sometimes be worth it to set up a .ca domain for that product. What I have done in the past is imported my products for resale here in Canada and then handled the shipping myself (well I actually had an employee do it). Then for my US sales as I got lots of those too even with a .ca domain I used amazon as my drop shipping company and had my products sent to them directly.

    I know this is kind of vague, I hope it helps.

    Ben
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    • Profile picture of the author davidg109
      Hey Ben,

      Thanks for sharing, actually it was very helpful.

      I'm going to be living between countries so I'll need someone to take care of all stock for me... ideally a single dropshipper.

      I'm likely going to set up a US and Canadian store ... probably something like mystore.com/us and mystore.com/ca... I'll have a separate .ca domain to 301 to the mystore.com/ca site.

      For shipping I plan to just use the same dropshipper for both Canadian and US orders. Canadian's are going to have to face duty unfortunately, but I'll be putting up a disclaimer to indicate what they should expect to pay.

      Do you see any flaws with my plan? I'm a first timer at this so just want to make sure I have the right "architecture" in mind for all of this.

      David
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      • Profile picture of the author tenaciouscreations
        Again it all depends on the product. From what you have revealed of your plan though it sounds like it should work.

        Ben
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  • Profile picture of the author Trucker
    the more demanded product you will see, the better it will perform, the strategy you have is enough to build up....
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  • Profile picture of the author votrechien
    If they're both being shipped from the same location, what's the advantage to making two sites? You might get some minor SEO advantages, but it's not worth differentiating two sites which are identical in almost every way IMO.
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