DYMO Endicia

Amine's Corner
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.

Read more on Amine's Blog.

Check Out Our USPS® Price Change Webpage
You can learn more about the upcoming U.S. Postal Service® Price Change at our educational USPS Price Change Webpage. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Mailing prices including the cost of a First-Class Mail® stamp will be changing during this price change as well as the prices for shipping classes. You can learn more about those changes here.
• If you ship First-Class packages, you should note that First-Class package shipping will be split into two new classifications, so that the U.S. Postal Service can offer a discounted rate to commercial shippers using electronic postage. DYMO Endicia customers who use labels with integrated address information and postage will be able to use the discounted service. Please bear in mind that the discounted rate is specifically for business fulfillment. Shipments of personal documents will not qualify for the discounted rate.
• The IMbp (Intelligent Mail® package barcode) will now be required for all packages. Due to the size of the IMbp imprint, several label types will no longer be supported for printing integrated labels on package shipments. Those labels will still work for letters and flats.
• The Postal Service™ will offer an Express Mail® Flat Rate™ Box in addition to the current envelope and a new, larger Priority Mail® Regional Rate Box.
• Volume Requirements to achieve Cubic Pricing have been lowered to 150,000 packages per year. That’s 100,000 less than the current requirement of 250,000.
• International mail classes will be standardized on the Commercial Plus™ and Commercial Base™ discount structure just as domestic mail classes are currently set up. This will make it much easier to see where volume discounts can be leveraged.
• Endicia Parcel Insurance rates will be going up but will continue to offer significant savings over U.S. Postal Service Insurance which is also increasing.

Harry's Hints: Getting the Most out of Postal Service Discounts
With the U.S. Postal Service offering so many new incentives targeted at shippers in the last few years, I thought it would be helpful to guide you through some of the things you should be considering for your shipping mix in light of pricing changes in 2012. Hopefully, we can let you in on a few benefits you might not already know about.

With the threshold for Commercial Plus Cubic pricing dropping from 250,000 to 150,000, quite a few more of you may find yourselves on the cusp of receiving this discounted pricing. If you’re shipping small but heavy items (machine parts, tools, metals, etc.), this can be a big break for you. You can find more information on the pricing offered on this chart. By the way, if you ship your parcels in soft pack or padded envelopes and you’d like to send them under cubic pricing, our software can calculate the cubic size. Just put in the package dimensions when you print the label, and we’ll take care of the rest.

If you find yourself on the cusp of the cubic threshold, or any other volume discount (here’s the chart of all of the thresholds), and have additional shipping volumes you could shift away from using another shipping method, I’d recommend looking at your packages going to residential addresses and those less than 5lbs. These are two segments of your shipping where the Postal Service will generally offer the best price. You may also want to look at recent statements from your alternative shipping service to see if and when rural route delivery charges have ever been added to your shipments. The Postal Service will deliver to those locations without the extra fee.   If you can shift enough package volume, you’ll qualify for these deeply discounted postage prices.

The new Regional Rate Box C is not only a great product for 1-3 zone shipping or heavier items, it will actually give you a price break for any package over 17 Lbs. and up to 25 Lbs. While these packages will be introduced at retail locations this year, you’ll still be saving $0.75 per package from the retail rate by using electronic postage. You can find information on dimensions and pricing here.

The new Express Mail Flat Rate box costs $39.95 with Commercial Base or Commercial Plus pricing and is the same size and formats (top or side loading) as the Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate box. If you’re interested in using it for your fulfillment, here’s a basic breakdown of where this Flat Rate box will cost less than standard Express Mail packaging for both Commercial Base and Commercial Plus:

Those are the key changes and products I recommend looking into for 2012. I hope you find them useful and that 2012 is your best year yet.

Sign up now for USPS Price Change webinars
On January 22nd, 2012, the U.S. Postal Service® will implement new postal pricing and features for competitive and market dominant services including Priority Mail®, Express Mail®, international mail classes and First-Class Mail®. To help you understand what these changes mean for you and your business, DYMO Endicia will host a series of one-hour educational webinars. Here is the current schedule of webinars with links to the registration pages. All times listed are Pacific Standard Time:

• Wednesday, January 11, 11:00am – 12:00pm
• Friday, January 13, 2:00pm – 3:00pm
• Tuesday, January 17, 9:00am – 10:00am
• Thursday, January 19, 3:00pm – 4:00pm
• Tuesday, January 24, 8:00am – 9:00am

Meet The Team

What's your name?

Charles

How long have you been working at DYMO Endicia?

7 Years

What's your favorite DYMO Endicia Tradition? Why do you like it?

When we were smaller, we (the company) would go bowling.

What do you do at DYMO Endicia?

I work at a computer all day doing physical refunds with a scanner hooked to our website.

What do you do when you're not working?

I go to the movies. I am seeing 2 tonight at the Stanford Theatre. It’s a grand old theatre (www.stanfordtheatre.org) that shows older films. I go to other theatres to see the latest Hollywood and Independent films.

What's your proudest DYMO Endicia moment?

When we get e-mails about our Tech Support Team getting praise from our customers.