Canadian vs. US Optical Suppliers — Duties, Lead Times, and Currency Risk for Canadian Practices

The total landed cost problem

When a Canadian practice orders from a US supplier, the invoice price is only the starting point. The true total landed cost includes:

• Duties and tariffs — most optical accessories imported from the US are subject to Canadian customs duties (rate varies by product classification)
• Customs brokerage fees — typically $50–$150 per shipment for a licensed broker
• Currency conversion — the difference between the USD invoice and your CAD bank account, plus the exchange rate margin charged by your bank or credit card
• Longer lead times — cross-border shipments typically take longer and are subject to customs clearance delays
• Return friction — returning or exchanging products across the border is significantly more complex and costly than a domestic return

Currency risk

This is the factor most often overlooked. When the CAD/USD rate moves against you — as it has meaningfully in recent years — your effective cost of goods from a US supplier rises without any change in the supplier's pricing. A 5% adverse currency move on a $5,000 order is $250 in additional cost, with no warning and no invoice.

A domestic supplier invoices in CAD, which eliminates currency risk entirely. Your costs are predictable across the full year regardless of exchange rate fluctuations.

Lead times and stockout risk

Cross-border shipments to Canada typically add 2–5 business days to a domestic shipping timeline, plus potential customs clearance holds. For practices running lean inventory, the margin for error on reorders is smaller when your supplier is south of the border.

A domestic Canadian supplier shipping from a Canadian warehouse means your order is subject only to Canadian shipping timelines — typically 2–3 business days to most Ontario locations, 3–5 days for most of Western Canada.

When a US supplier might still make sense

There are legitimate situations where a US supplier is the right choice: a specific product that simply isn't available from any Canadian source, or a supplier relationship built over many years with negotiated terms that make the total cost work despite currency and duty headwinds.

What doesn't make sense is defaulting to a US supplier without ever doing the full landed cost calculation. Many practices that have run those numbers have found that a comparable domestic product — even at a slightly higher per-unit price — comes out cheaper once duties, brokerage, and currency are factored in.

Top Flight Canada — Canadian wholesale supply

Top Flight Canada is a domestic Canadian wholesale supplier operating from Vaughan, Ontario. We invoice in CAD, ship from our Ontario warehouse to every province and territory, and offer the same product categories as most US optical accessory wholesalers — eyeglass cases, lens cleaners, microfibre cloths, bags, and repair supplies — without the cross-border headaches.

If you're currently sourcing from a US supplier, we're happy to do a side-by-side total cost comparison on your current product mix. Contact us with what you're buying and your current pricing and we'll give you an honest comparison.