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New USPS Prices And Changes For 2016
Time to start thinking how we will adjust our shipping charges starting at 12:01 AM on Jan. 17. Here are a few highlights of the USPS price increases...
First Class Package prices will increase an average of 12.6% for Commercial Base.
First Class Package maximum weight will increase from 13 oz. to 16 oz.
Priority Mail Flate Rate Envelope and Padded Flat Rate Envelope prices are increasing.
More info: http://blog.stamps.com/2015/10/22/usps-announces-postage-rate-increase-starts-january-17-2016/
First Class Package prices will increase an average of 12.6% for Commercial Base.
First Class Package maximum weight will increase from 13 oz. to 16 oz.
Priority Mail Flate Rate Envelope and Padded Flat Rate Envelope prices are increasing.
More info: http://blog.stamps.com/2015/10/22/usps-announces-postage-rate-increase-starts-january-17-2016/
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That's another serious increase, isn't that like the third year in a row they blow up their prices significantly? Do they realise that by doing so they are going to 'kill' US based sellers 'export' towards the rest of the world? I dropped down my number of US purchases to maybe 10% (it used to be close to 50% a couple of years back) the past year or 2, I can only conclude I'll need to stick to the strickt minimum in future. On BL the statistics are pretty clear: the past year, in the top 60 sellers, there's permenantly near 43/45 EU based stores, and only 15/17 NA based stores, I suspect this postage increase will only contribute to an even larger increase and growth of EU based stores (to be clear: I don't consider that a good thing, as there is less 'balance').
Obviously you still have a large 'national' customers base, but some countries are even shipping at lower cost towards the US, then 'national' shipping within the US (go figure).
"First Class Package International Service postage rates will increase by an average of 21.6% in 2016, however Commercial Base and Plus prices will remain the same next year."
http://www.endicia.com/usps/postage-rate-change/-/media/Files/usps/understanding-the-january-2016-usps-price-change.pdf
One of the concerns I have is that Click N Ship on USPS is going to be retail rates with no discounts.
1. Is PayPal going to loose its discounted pricing too?
2. Will we be forced to join Endica/Stamps.com to get discounted rates?
I called PayPal (twice) and they are oblivious to the changes. We ship everything through PayPal so this is not good news and gives us little time to prepare since they know nothing of the changes,
Plus PayPal does not ship the flat rate bubble mailer you have to use USPS for this and now with no discounts and a rate increase. The flat rate bubble mailer is going to go up quit a bit.
I wonder if sales will suffer, since customers who would otherwise place a small order may decide it's not worth the shipping cost.
It appears that over the counter rates for first class domestic are not changing so it will actually be 6c cheaper to "walk-up" a 1-3 oz package. Not that 6c is worth my time to stand around and deal with postal employees. :-)