Cannot ship to Canada all of a sudden?

[kbmatthews]

So... all of a sudden, a TON of items on my loves page cannot be shipped to Canada. Some of these I've even already purchased in the past. What's going on here??

[chocopudding]

I suppose that would be the worst case scenario. Not likely though - their market in Canada's (brick and mortar stores, anyway) are still doing really well....

[Mochapj]

I am never surprised anymore when Sephora disappoints me.

I'm actually more surprised when they do something right, and that makes me sad 😞

[chocopudding]

Yeah I remember when I first purchased from Sephora and how delighted I was...to now. 😕 It's not that Sephora's gotten worse, now that I think about it, but that all the other vendors have upped their game and has surpassed Sephora in many ways....

[mommao4]

Wow Sephora....you have lost a huge number of customers! How about sharing what you plan to do to address the labelling issue with your suppliers? The reality is they will have no incentive to meet Canadian standards....consumers will simply resort to American vendors. Tarte, for example, will still ship direct to Canada...totally no incentive for them to change their packaging because Sephora ships within Canada. 

Its hard to believe how shortsighted you have been!

[jsmile]

Sephora is opening up a new warehouse in Ontario for online orders in order to decrease shipping times and increase business in Canada. Canada is more strict on ingredients and labeling so many items cannot be shipped within Canada or sold from Canada. I.e. products with low SPF ratings. 

[SaraBT]

Hi Everyone! 

We've seen all of your feedback and questions, and although we may not have the answers to each and every one, we are sharing as much information as we can and will try to get to all individual asks as best as we can.

We are excited to announce that of this weekend, we have started shipping to Canadian addresses from our new warehouse in Canada.  By being able to ship directly within Canada, our clients will receive many new benefits, including faster processing and delivery times, elimination of duty charges and the addition of new brands and items to our Canadian product assortment. If there are certain favourites that appear to be out of stock, try searching for the product by name again; in some cases we have updated the product item number. For other products that no longer appear on the site, we apologize that this is due to stricter packaging guidelines that we are required to adhere to by law in order to ship within Canada.  Please continue to check back as these products may become available again in the future.  

For in store stock, if items have been available in your local store previously, they should still be there. For specific store stock questions, please call your local store. 

We understand this change may be frustrating for some but please know that we made this change to benefit our Canada clients to ensure faster and easier shipping and returns as well as the elimination of duty charges.

[sugagotokyo]

When did Canadians ever pay duties on Sephora orders? Seriously, that's not an excuse.

[makeuppammy]

the duties were always in the same line as the taxes 😞

[veronika23]

What I don't understand is that I've been hearing about a Canadian Warehouse for years now. Didn't you guys do your homework about this and which brand could possibly be dropped due to laws.... why didn't you warn the brands about this. This wasn't an overnight thing. So seriously either you have incompetent people running the show or the label thing isn't the truth considering some of the restricted brands/products are sold in stores. 

Canadians are loosing a lot of benefits too... including one of the only perks for Rouge is early access. Now we can't even get that. 

I think marketing should invest time in reading what comes up on BT. It's free info, a permanent focus group. Maybe if they did Sephora wouldn't have so many complaints and angry customers.

[danimazz]

While the launch of a Canadian warehouse excites me (it's about time!), if this is the result, this is extremely disappointing.  Canadians already have such limited access to a wide range of brands (especially for those far from large city centres) and Sephora truly is (or was) the leading source of these products for us.  

Is it not possible to ship those products from the US still while shipping orders that are available from the Canadian warehouse from there.  When you place your order, the shipping origin would be determined based on the products ordering. (Example: I order a Kate Somerville product and the KVD palette so it would ship from the US since KS can't be shipped here.  Another time I order only KVD and that ships direct from Canada)

I understand that this is about legal compliance, so should we be taking our complaints directly to the brands, urging them to modify their packaging so that we can continue to access them?

My last point: this should be a lesson in public relations.  Much disappointment and frustration would have been avoided if only for a short heads up post or email to Canadian clients in advance of this change.  A simple, "Yay, we are opening a Canadian warehouse to get you your orders faster, oh and FYI, this list of brands/products will not be available to ship to Canada after X date, so stock up!" would have been sufficient.

[danimazz]

Forgot to mention the loss of online only promo codes, which are 99.9% of promos.  I hope Canadian stores will have some in store promos or else those emails about promo codes are really going to upset people.

[Anonymous]

Sara, thank you for providing some answers. Can you shed some light on why some items now appear out of stock for Canadians but are still in stock on the US site? Even items that do not have the "cannot be shipped to Canada" disclaimer such as the new too faced love flush blush and tarte sculpt & glow radiant essentials set?

[fatimamummy]

I think it might be that those items are not yet stocked in Canadian warehouse. Once stocked up we'll be able to buy them and those will not be restricted items.

[jeannie11]

I don't think anyone was complaining that much about slow shipping.

We know things coming from the States may take a few extra days and I find it hard to believe that Sephora cares so much about us that they built a Canadian warehouse, specifically to get orders to us in a timelier manner.

Half my wish list is gone. Shampoo. Beauty accessories. All the good Beauty Deals.

Somehow I think this benefits Sephora more than it benefits us. Can you explain how this may be a wrong assumption?

[Mochapj]

Sara, appreciate that someone has finally stopped in to answer some questions.

One thing I don't understand, why is it that Sephora could ship certain products to Canada when they were being processed from the US, but now that they are being distributed in Canada, you cannot continue to ship certain items.  If the item is still the same, I don't understand why the point of origin matters.

Also, as you mentioned if something was store stock, it should still be available to us - why would it be ok to sell something in store but not online in Canada?

A bit of a heads up before the change went live would have been appreciated by all of us.

[emmohh]

It has to do with origin of purchase. 

Before the items we were receiving were made for specifically the American market with the intention of being sold/distributed in the US. The sales technically occurred in the US with Borderfree acting as the customer on our behalf. Borderfree then forwarded the packages to us. You will notice that you get charged by Borderfree and not Sephora directly on your bill. Items are then sent to Borderfree, prepared for customs with the proper labeling and forwarded to us. This provided a loophole to the distribution laws with BF acting as the middle man. 

Now the transactions are occurring solely in Canada, with no intermediary, it becomes the responsibility of the retailer wanting to sell in Canada to ensure that their products comply with Canadian distribution laws. Products intended for the Canadian market must meet Canadian standards- the most notable being English and French labeling.     

[Mochapj]

Emmohh, I understand that part, what I don't understand is why it would be ok to sell those products in store if they don't comply, but not online from the new distribution centre?

If they don't meet Canadian standards, I would assume they'd have to stop selling them via all channels in Canada, but Sara's note makes that sound like it isn't the case.

[emmohh]

You're right, products through all channels would have to comply with Canadian laws. My guess is that the warehouse just doesn't have the stock of the Canadian versions we see in store yet.

Sephora is likely waiting on supply of these products that should technically be available to us since we can purchase them not only at Canadian Sephora but also other Canadians retailers (Dior for example). Plus since Sephora has employed the worst IT team ever (no seriously), I'd put money on the likelihood that some products labeled "Not able to be shipped to Canada" should actually be labeled "Currently out of stock" because the supply hasn't arrived.

[Chickibum]

This is what I don't understand ^^^

[fatimamummy]

You are absolutely right about it emmohh, I believe the the availability of restricted items pretty much depend on the brands themselves if they want to put in extra effort and make the packaging changes to comply with Canadian regulations which is not a very difficult task .

For Sephora, it looks like they didn't inform the brand managements about the changes like they didn't inform us. I think products restricted due to packaging issues might come available sooner or later but those with restricted ingredients will not be available anymore.

[emmohh]

Exactly. Products with restricted ingredients (usually they fall under pharmaceuticals) are gone for good. Products that became restricted due to SPF labeling will either:

a) have to retest the actual SPF of the product under Canadian guidelines and label them accordingly, or

b) remove the SPF labeling completely (eg. NARS Tinted Moisturizer that is found in Canadian stores)

Everything else that is currently restricted but found/sold in Canada will be up to Sephora to get that supply in the new distribution centre.