Zappos closes its Canadian storefront

Shoe and accessory e-retailer Zappos.com announced today that it will close its Canada.Zappos.com storefront and no longer ship to customers in Canada as of April 1.

Zappos.com Inc.’s Canadian e-retail business encountered multiple obstacles that prevented it from delivering service that was up tothe e-retailer’sstandards, wrote Chris Nielsen, the retailer’s chief operating and financial officer, in a blog post.

“One of our core values is to ‘deliver wow through service,’” he says. “Our Canadian customers know that we have not lived up to these service levels.” The same message appears on the home page of Canada.Zappos.com.

Nielsen says distribution agreements limited the products and brands it could sell on Canada.Zappos.com. He says clearing Canadian customs and delivery also posed problems.

“We have struggled with general uncertainty and unpredictability of delivering orders to our Canadian customers, given customs and other logistical constraints,” he says.

Orders made at Zappos.com cannot be shipped to Canada. Canadian consumers can place orders at Zappos.com but must provide a U.S. shipping address.

Zappos.com is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, the No. 1 e-retailer in Internet Retailer’s Top 500 Guide. Amazon bought Zappos.com in 2009 for approximately $850 million.