Don’t Take This Year’s Postal Increase Lightly

Postal Thought Process
First, let’s address your whole mind-set about the postal rate situation, then get into some cost-saving ideas to help get you through 2008. Catalogers and multichannel mailers need to approach this increase with newer, longer-term thinking.

“For postal rate increases to remain at or below the CPI during the next several years, USPS revenues must keep pace with its labor and retiree cost obligations,” says Allen Abbott, executive vice president/COO for Paul Fredrick MenStyle, a men’s apparel cataloger. “And with first quarter flats volume down 13 percent, I’m not wholly confident that will be the case. The best case scenario is that the USPS will gain a better understanding of price elasticity in our industry, and start to weigh postage costs vs. anticipated revenue streams.”