The Price Change and the U.S. Postal Service

With the coming of the new year, it’s a great time to look forward to new opportunities and consider the ways to make this coming year the best year, ever. Every day it seems that there are more opportunities for businesses to grow, despite the still-recovering economy. The shipping industry is thriving like never before with the ever increasing number of avenues for online selling and order fulfillment. Are you taking advantage of these opportunities and looking for new ways to bring your business to the next level?

The U.S. Postal Service® is well aware of the shift from brick-and-mortar stores to online retailers. They have been making many adjustments themselves to adapt to the changing economy, and will continue to do so. The USPS annual price change is right around the corner, and it’s always interesting to see what changes they make. Most cringe at the mention of the annual “USPS price change.” Sure, it can be a headache trying to figure it all out, but this year the USPS is introducing some changes that are going to be very beneficial, especially for shippers. Are you ready? As we navigate through the numbers and figure out how to implement the new shipping options they are offering, it’s important to remember the bigger picture – that the Postal Service™ is in it for the long run.

True, it’s been questioned whether the USPS will survive with the decline of the mailing industry. With talk about axing Saturday deliveries, closing local Post Office™ locations and more, it can seem concerning. But again, looking at the bigger picture, the Postal Service is actually doing exactly what it needs to – adapting to the changing industry and focusing on what they can do to move forward. The shipping industry is quickly growing, and the USPS is right on board.

Consider the improvements that have been made in tracking shipments. In just a few short years, we’ve gone from a situation where confirmation of delivery was the only information available for a postal shipment. The USPS has now moved to a fully-fledged tracking system that returns the same amount of tracking information as any private carrier. (I’ve even seen cases where it returned more in-transit scans than a comparable commercial shipment!) With the introduction of Commercial pricing, the Postal Service again reached out to shippers with a discount structure that is easier to understand and qualify for. I think the new standardization of naming for Commercial pricing across domestic and international products this year indicates that we will continue to see that trend.

Between these service improvements and the introduction of industry-leading products like the Flat Rate and Regional Rate boxes, it’s clear that the Postal Service is targeting far more of the shipping market than just the packages going to P.O. Boxes and military addresses. And rightly so – The U.S. Postal Service’s shipping segment has shown tremendous growth in the past few years. Most people don’t know about it because, sadly, growth is not as newsworthy to the media as reporting on the USPS’ current financial troubles.

I’m not saying that the Postal Service isn’t facing some real and very serious budgeting issues. I just want you to know the rest of the story so that, if you’ve worried that the U.S. Postal Service may be simply shutting its doors some time in the future, you’ll understand why I believe that won’t happen. Serious changes may have to be made to deal with the decline in mail volume, but those changes will be made with the protection and success of the growing shipping segment in mind. That’s why we’ve also seen a conscious effort by the Postal Service to separate their shipping services from their mailing services. This way they can incentivize the growing base of shippers to continue using the Postal Service and to move more of their shipping business over from costly private carriers.

Because the Postal Service is still limited by fairly inflexible legislation, this transition has been slowly playing out over a number of years. I hope I’ve given you some insight into the strategy behind the changes we’re seeing. Here at DYMO Endicia, we do our best to help you make sense of all these new changes. Our team is working hard to make the transition as seamless as possible, and we’ve also got some great resources to help you out along the way. A great way to get started is to view one of our upcoming webinars, where we’ll explain the price change in a way that’s easy to understand. To see when the next webinar is being hosted, check out the Webinar Schedule.

I will leave you with this challenge: sit back for a moment and take a look at your calendar for this coming year. We have twelve months of opportunity ahead of us – what are you going to do with it? Are you ready to take the steps to grow your business to the next level? Are you dreaming big? Whatever you have in store for the coming year, you can be sure that DYMO Endicia and the Postal Service are ready to grow with you. Here’s to an exciting and successful year!

For more news and tips, check out our FedEx vs. UPS vs. USPS shipping rates comparison page.