Shipping

The United States Postal Service is raising rates for Priority Mail when purchased at the post office. But it is lowering rates for those who purchase Priority Mail postage online, a further incentive for merchants to print labels online. The USPS announced the new rates last month, and the Postal Rate Commission issued its order approving the rate changes on Friday, August 15. The new rates take effect on Sept. 7. 

Amazon recently added a new incentive for its consumers when it comes to shipping, an article in the Huffington Post reported.  The company has announced Prime members who choose "No-Rush Shipping" for any order will receive a $1 credit to be used on Amazon's Instant Video library on

Amazon.com announced yesterday that it will be expanding its same-day delivery service in six metro areas: New York City, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Baltimore, Dallas and Indianapolis. Customers in those cities will be able to have their orders delivered on the same day if they purchase before noon — for a fee, of course. The question remains, however, is same-day shipping worth it?

With memories of the well-publicized 2013 Christmas delivery failures still fresh on the minds of consumers and retailers alike, leading brands have already begun preparing a shipping strategy for the 2014 holiday rush. While it's not too late for proper planning for holiday shipping, it's certainly not too early. Here are four tips to improve the delivery of orders to your customers this upcoming holiday season:

Sellers are reporting major technical problems with the U.S. Postal Service's Click-N-Ship, a service they use to print online postage, with one avid user calling the glitches "the biggest e-commerce story of the month." Last week, the service had an outage, reported on Ecommerce EKG and on the website IsItDownRightNow.com. 

How do you compete if you can’t offer same-day delivery? Doug Sternberg offers his expert thoughts in this webinar.

Listen as we map out simple customer service best practices you can implement today, and keep customers coming back time and again.

How small retailers (both online and brick-and-mortar) can compete with Amazon and its vast resources, cheap pricing and fast delivery.

In this webinar, executives discuss the key challenges omnichannel retail marketers faced heading into the 2014 holiday season.

Amazon.com is asking the federal government if it can start testing drones in its own backyard to speed up its development of Prime Air shipping, according to a letter published to the Federal Aviation Administration's website on Thursday. If granted, Amazon will be able to test its drones outside of the testing sites designated by the FAA. The Seattle-based company said it could innovate more quickly, allowing it to test out new designs without traveling to one of the six FAA-approved sites scattered throughout the country.