7 Causes to Think about USPS Flat Fee Delivery

America Postal Service gives flat fee bins and envelopes that will assist on-line shops cut back delivery prices whereas enhancing a client’s shopping for expertise.

Delivery could be a vital problem for ecommerce retailers. A enterprise should pay delivery costs and service charges, purchase packing supplies, and pay labor to choose and pack every order. Furthermore, for a lot of the trade, free and quick ecommerce supply is the norm. Buyers anticipate to put an order, get free delivery, and have that order in about two days. You would possibly name this expectation the Amazon Prime impact.

Thankfully, the USPS has been a pioneer in flat fee delivery companies. The postal service’s first flat fee providing started in February 1991 when the Precedence Mail flat-rate envelope was launched.

Greater than a decade in a while November 20, 2004, the USPS launched the primary Precedence Mail flat fee field. Immediately, USPS flat fee companies handle many ecommerce supply issues and prices.

Benefits of Flat Fee Delivery

Among the many varied carriers accessible to North American on-line retailers, the USPS gives a few of the most engaging choices, particularly with its aforementioned flat fee and pay as you go flat fee bins and envelopes.

Listed below are seven causes to think about these companies.

• Free bins. USPS flat fee bins are free. Retailers can merely get them organized for gratis and begin delivery. Retailers will nonetheless must buy packing peanuts or comparable cushioning materials, however not having to pay as a lot as $1 per field will be big financial savings.

• Recognized prices. Though delivery calculators are correct, there are occasions when the precise delivery price for a bundle exceeds what the service provider anticipated. Flat fee bins have a identified price — no surprises.

• Precedence supply. The USPS flat fee bins are Precedence Mail, which means {that a} bundle will usually be delivered in two or three days. Precedence Mail packages additionally get particular dealing with within the USPS system.

• No surcharges. The USPS doesn’t add gasoline, residential, or Saturday supply surcharges to any cargo.

• Extra addresses. The USPS delivers to each U.S. handle, together with submit workplace bins and authorities addresses like APO (Military/Air Pressure Put up Workplace), FPO (Fleet Put up Workplace, for Navy), and DPO (Diplomatic Put up Workplace, for U.S. embassies). Different U.S. carriers can solely attain these addresses when the postal service delivers that final mile.

• Safety. Solely the USPS is allowed to put packages in mailboxes. Plus, not like some carriers that merely depart packages on the porch, the USPS will attempt to re-deliver giant packages in some instances. Not abandoning packages might assist stop buy fraud or theft.

• Legislation enforcement safety. Flat fee USPS shipments are protected by U.S. federal legislation enforcement, which, once more, might contribute to much less fraud and theft.

USPS Flat Fee Delivery Costs

The USPS gives a number of flat fee delivery choices, together with quite a lot of envelopes and bins. Every flat fee envelope or field contains three pricing tiers. The “on the submit workplace” fee is what a really low quantity shipper would pay. Almost any ecommerce enterprise would have the ability to get hold of the “industrial base” fee, and excessive quantity ecommerce shippers would benefit from the “industrial plus” charges.

I collected the charges proven beneath on Might 20, 2018 from the USPS’s fee sheets accessible beneath the downloads tab on the USPS pricing web page.

USPS Charges In comparison with Different Carriers

With the USPS flat fee bins, “if it matches, it ships” (as much as 70 kilos), making the service particularly good for dense, heavy merchandise which are additionally comparatively small in dimension.

Beneath are a number of value comparisons, taking a look at USPS flat fee delivery versus revealed United Parcel Service and FedEx retail charges.

Small flat fee bins vs. floor delivery. On this first comparability, I checked out delivery charges for 1, 3, and 5-pound packages that match within the 8 11/16 inch by 5 7/16 inch by 1 3/4 inch small flat fee field versus a similar-sized bundle shipped by way of UPS Floor or FedEx House Supply.

Within the examples, the packages are all shipped from Caldwell, Idaho, ZIP code 83607. The locations, representing a number of delivery zones, are New York, Chicago, Dallas, San Diego, and Las Vegas.

The UPS and FedEx charges are based mostly on supply to a residential handle. The USPS charges are for the industrial base tier. The FedEx charges don’t embrace dimensional weight.

Lastly, it’s price mentioning that whereas it isn’t proven on this desk, the USPS provides flat fee bins freed from cost. I service provider would wish to pay about $1 per order or extra to buy a delivery field for UPS or FedEx.

For small packages, USPS flat fee bins are troublesome to beat, particularly when a enterprise is delivery throughout a number of zones. In lots of instances, it was half the price to ship by way of a USPS flat fee field. The potential financial savings held true whether or not one compares USPS flat fee bins to UPS Floor or FedEx House Supply.

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Massive flat fee bins vs. floor delivery. On this subsequent set of value comparisons, I checked out delivery a 5, 10, and 15-pound bundle in a USPS giant flat fee field versus delivery an analogous bundle by way of UPS Floor or FedEx House Supply.

In these examples, there are lots of occasions when delivery a 5-pound field by way of UPS and FedEx House was inexpensive than the USPS, particularly throughout a few zones. Because the variety of zones and the burden will increase, nonetheless, USPS flat fee delivery turns into a really aggressive choice. At 15 kilos, an internet shipper would possibly save 50 %.

I used the identical ZIP codes as above, geared toward residential deliveries.

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USPS flat fee vs. different flat fee delivery. Though the USPS is the primary service to supply flat fee delivery, it isn’t the one choice. For instance, FedEx has its One Fee service.

The desk beneath compares three in style field sizes for FedEx and the USPS. The FedEx One Fee is basically three charges. There’s a native fee, which is inside 150 miles of the shipper’s location. There’s a regional fee for shipments between 151 and 600 miles. And the nationwide fee is for shipments touring greater than 600 miles.

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Protect Margins

In a aggressive market the place the pattern is to supply free delivery to each buyer no matter order dimension, utilizing USPS flat fee bins will help retailers protect margins. USPS flat fee bins sometimes ship quicker than floor delivery, doubtlessly enhancing the consumer’s expertise.