With all of the attention that the USPS has received in 2020, it is probably not a surprise that there will be a USPS 2021 postage increase.
The USPS has been raising prices on postage annually, at a rate that is roughly based on increases in the cost of living. This year, with the pressures to reach profitability increased, but without any ability to change its service offerings without Congressional approval, a postage increase is one of the only ways for the USPS to raise revenue.
On October 9th, 2020, the USPS announced that they’ve filed notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission for price changes to take affect on January 24th, 2021.
The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) is the independent federal agency that is charged with providing transparency and accountability for USPS operations.
Here’s a link to the full set of January 2021 price changes.
USPS 2021 postage increase and the impact on direct mail products
While the cost of the first class stamp remains stable at $.55, there are price increases in several services that high volume direct mailers use.
Commercial First-Class and Marketing Mail (Standard Class) are increasing between 0% and 9%, depending upon the method by which the mailer organizes the mail for the USPS.
For the mailing nerds among us, the SCF-entry and NDC-entry rates are increasing, to bring them in line with recent estimates of USPS costs. Drop shipping is a common tactic that high volume printer/mailers use to create efficiency and cost savings that are passed on to marketers.
How does this impact Postalytics pricing?
If you’ve used Postalytics to send direct mail, you know that we don’t break out postage costs specifically, our costs are “bundled” for simplicity. We negotiate with multiple printing/mailing organizations to optimize services and pricing for our clients.
While the 2021 USPS postage increases will factor into Postalytics pricing in 2021, there are several factors that impact the pricing of direct mail. Postage, paper pricing (including, believe it or not, raw pulp pricing), labor costs and volume are all major factors that ultimately determine direct mailing prices.
We are fortunate at Postalytics to be growing rapidly, as the notion of automating direct mail is becoming more mainstream. Our volume growth will enable us to mitigate other costs factors, to some extent.
Most volume tiers that Postalytics offers are impacted by $.01 and $.02. Some tiers are not changing, while for others, we are actually dropping prices!
You can lock in 2020 pricing now.
We’re working with many customers to lock in current pricing for their late 2020 and early 2021 mailings. If you’re interested in exploring this, get in touch with us immediately.
The unique “direct mail credits” feature of Postalytics enables marketers to pre-purchase the ability to send direct mail, and to get significant price reductions while doing so. If you want to lock in your 2021 mailing at 2020 costs, we advise you to take advantage of our current direct mail credit pricing soon.