I’ve been using VistaPrint to print my business cards for years – they have excellent prices, and great quality prints and paper. Almost two years ago, VistaPrint opened a printing location in Canada, and started serving Canadians from Vistaprint.ca. Seems like anyone in Canada should order from Vistaprint.ca, doesn’t it? You’d expect to save on shipping because it’s within the same country, and the prices should be in line with what Vistaprint.com offers, right? Wrong. I was ordering some new Digital Home Thoughts business cards today, and check out the differences between the .ca and .com sites. First up, we have the .ca pricing of $77.95 for 500 cards:
For $78 I could get the cards printed locally and likely have quality nearly as good as VistaPrint. Now check out VistaPrint USA’s pricing:
The base price for 500 cards is only $5 difference, but VistaPrint is known far and wide for their sales – they have a constant sale on their business cards, so the 80% discount isn’t unusual. Amazingly, the Canadian arm of VistaPrint rarely, if ever, offers any type of promotional sales – and you’ll notice that all of their base prices for upgrades are also higher than the US prices. So why would I order from them?
Well, maybe shipping will make up the difference? Wrong. Priority, 7-day shipping from the USA is $20.31. Priority, 7-day shipping from within Canada is $29.36. Even once I factor in a 25% or so currency difference, ordering from VistaPrint USA was more than 50% less expensive than ordering from VistaPrint Canada.
What does VistaPrint assume, that Canadians are stupid and lazy, and won’t bother looking on the USA site?