Zip.ca was an online DVD rental and movie rental kiosk company operating in Canada. It had a database of over 82,000 unique titles. Zip.ca was a member of the privately held Momentous Group of companies, and was owner of the Ottawa Rapidzbaseball team until its first-season bankruptcy. On August 17, 2014, Zip.ca announced on its website that it was closing its doors and was no longer shipping discs to its members.
Corporate history
2000s: inception
Zip.ca began its rental operations in February 2004, from its base of operations in Ottawa, Ontario. In July 2005 it arranged to provide the fulfillment services for Rogers Video Direct, a new online subsidiary of one of Canada's largest video store chains. By February 2006, Zip.ca had over 30,000 subscribers. In December 2006, Zip.ca announced passing the 6,000,000 disc rental milestone.
Zip.ca followed the general model for an online DVD rental company. Some details specific to Zip.ca include:
Shipping – Zip.ca started with a single warehouse and distribution centre, in a Nepeanbusiness park in the Canadian capital city of Ottawa, Ontario. To decrease shipment times to other parts of the country, it later introduced what it called a "hybrid" or "gateway" system, where they express-shipped large batches of envelopes directly to Canada Post sorting plants in major cities. These shipments were designed to arrive during the same overnight sorting shift that would have processed them had they been mailed locally, providing something close to local delivery times within those urban areas, and improved delivery times within the region. Returns were sent to Zip.ca in Ottawa, and thus didn't benefit from this arrangement. In 2006 Zip.ca opened distribution centres in Calgary, Toronto, and Vancouver to serve those regions directly, and while "gateway" routes may have been kept for areas with no regional warehouse, it is not known if these are still in operation.
ZipRefill – To alleviate the return delivery times, Zip.ca pledged to, send a replacement disc once a customer indicates that a disc has been returned to Zip.ca, without waiting for it to actually be received. Only a single ZipRefill is allowed at any one time, which allows a person with, for instance, a 4-disc membership to at times actually have 5 discs in their possession or in transit. Some other Canadian rental companies have incorporated a similar concept, often extending it to multiple active replacements.
ZipList – In August 2006, Zip.ca revamped its ZipList, which is more flexible than its predecessor. With the new queue, each title can be individually ordered at the user's preference. This change was made to address one of the most significant criticisms of the Zip.ca in the past. Movies are not shipped according to customers' ranking, but rather, when titles become available.
Shipping Limits – In January 2006, Zip.ca introduced monthly limits on the number of discs shipped free. Customers who exceed these limits can, at their option, continue to receive shipments for the month, but will be charged a fee for each additional disc shipped that month. The new policy took effect for existing customers on February 27, 2006. In August 2006, Zip.ca re-introduced some unlimited shipping, but solely on a new 3-disc/unlimited plan, which carries the same price as the 4-disc/11-disc-per-month plan.
Lost or stolen discs - Customers are not held responsible for items that were lost or damaged during shipping. If discs are lost multiple times, however, Zip may choose to suspend a customer's account until they agree to pay for any future discs which are lost, stolen, damaged in transit, or otherwise not received by Zip. Should a customer lose a DVD while it is in their possession, they may be asked to pay the suggested retail price to cover the cost of restocking. Zip.ca does investigate instances of theft or fraud.
Rental plans
Zip.ca imposed a free shipping limit per month, unless the customer chose the special "Unlimited" plan. When the DVD shipment limit was reached, the customer had to pay for additional shipments in the billing month or wait until the next billing month before Zip.ca would continue shipments. In November 2011, Zip.ca began charging a $1 rental fee for each Blu-ray disc. The Blu-ray fee was removed in October 2012. Blu-ray was not available on either of the 1-DVD plans.
Canadian rental marketplace
On August 30, 2005, Zip.ca announced that it was buying out the online operations of its then main Canadian rival, VHQonline.ca, and has also picked up assets from other companies going out of business. They also bought out rival Mississauga based Moviesforme
