I noted today when I went to order that Wyze has a significant upcharge (even on sale items) for Canadian clients. The cost of a flood light system was 42% higher on the Canadian site vs the the US site. I reached out to Wyze and was told that just how it is. There is already an additional charge for shipping- so the difference is not for that. The taxes are added separately - so its not for that either.
Yeah, I can explain a part of why this is from my own business experience.
- Wyze deals in extremely low-profit margins (so there isn’t a lot of flexibility…if something is going to increase their costs to get it there, etc, they HAVE TO raise the price to compensate
- From what I can tell from the public records, they have everything shipped to them in the US first, and then they have to send loads to their Canadian warehouses afterward. So it costs more to get everything to their Canadian distributors
- Different distributor contracts in USA vs Canadia, which may require higher costs to compensate
- Different sales/deals at different times (likely partially based on different distributor options)
- Shipping costs are more expensive within Canada than within the USA, and Wyze has to build most of that extra cost into the cost of the product since people freak out if they just charge the real cost of shipping, so there is definitely going to have to be a markup for the extra man hours and re-shipping and processing costs for a lot of things
- Exchange rate differences (1 USD is the equivalent of 1.36 Canadian). So that is already a 1.36x markup just to make it “even”
All of this does make a lot of things on the Canadian site seem more expensive, though some of that is the exchange rate and some of that is the extra costs for simply getting the products there in the first place, as well as Canada’s higher shipping rates, different distribution contracts, etc.
But not everything is more expensive for Canadians. For example, at just this moment (Time of writing = 9/4/23), the original Video Doorbell for USA is $34.99 and for Canadians it’s $29.99. When you take the exchange rate into account, it’s like Canadians are getting it for $22.06USD while USA people are charged $12.93 more!!! That’s a 58.61% markup that USA people are paying compared to the sweet deal Canadians are getting. And that was just the first item I looked at.
Wyze Headphones are the same right now. Canadian website lists it for $59.99CAD and US=$89.99USD Which means Canadians are getting it for just $44.13USD while USA is paying a 103.92% markup…more than double the Canadians’ price.
There are other examples, but part of what needs to be kept in mind is that Wyze has different distributors in the USA and Canada and often has different “deals” for each at different times.
Still, we’ll look at the Floodlight:
USA: Regular price = $93.99 currently on sale for $44.99USD
Canadian: Regular price = $138.99, current sale: $114.99CAD
So yes, the floodlights themselves are currently more expensive in Canada at the equivalent of $84.59USD while the US website has them for $44.99. That is 88.02% higher for Canadians. And the regular price is canada = $102.24USDequivalent compared to the USA $93.99USD for only 8.78% markup at regular price for both locations. Which is probably mostly due to the reshipping from US to Canada in the first place plus higher in-Canadian shipping costs out to the customer. So the regular price seems like it’s reasonably equivalent, it’s just that the US has a special deal right now.
Personally, what I would do in your shoes if I wanted a new floodlight right now, is use a “Reshipper” service. I would order from the USA while they have it so cheap, have that sent to a reshipper service, who would then forward it on to me in Canada. Even if the extra shipping it should still be cheaper in this instance.