Yesterday I heard on the news that the Canadian dollar was at $0.98 U.S. Today, the Canadian dollar reached parity with the U.S. dollar. This news really takes aback those of us who grew with jokes about shopping in Canada. Living just south of the Canadian border in Washington State, it was conventional wisdom that you could buy almost twice as much for your U.S. dollar there as you could in the U.S. And it was an insult if someone gave you change (on the U.S. side) that included Canadian pennies, dimes or quarters.

Today all that has changed.

Over the past few months the Canadian and U.S. dollars have been creeping closer together in value until they are essentially the same.

So what does this mean for those of us who sell stuff? We're Canada's new China!

But seriously, if you have an online business of any sort based in the U.S., whether it's copywriting, mlm training, or patio furniture your stuff is now much cheaper to Canadians than it was just a few months ago. Suddenly, you are more price competitive and you didn't have to lower your prices!

In fact, this change has taken place just quickly enough that Canadian retailers have not had the chance to figure out how they're going to lower their prices to compete with their U.S. counterparts. Perhaps living in a town that is just 15 miles south of the Canadian border makes me more aware of this then someone living in Texas, but the benefits go to anyone doing business online in the U.S.

Particularly if you do not ship a physical product, the value of your offers just went up. Let's say you offer an eBook or training course for $97. A year ago that might have actually been more like $130 in Canadian funds. But now, it's actually $97 to them as well so a purchase they may have been holding off making is within the realm of possibility.

So for U.S. marketers, I advise that you make nice with your Canadian friends and remind them that it's actually cheaper to shop with you than to shop in Canada.

And for my Canadian buddies - come on down, the shopping's great!