Product Management and Development

Financial Services

USPS offers 2nd Ounce Free as a rate category for First-Class Mail Presort and Automation letters. Mailers have new marketing opportunities by combining more promotional messages with bills, invoices and statements without worry about additional postage costs.

Communications

Launched this year, Picture Permit Imprint Indicia allows commercial mailers the opportunity to creatively add value to their mailpieces. Mailers can customize their permit indicia with a logo, brand images or trademarks, along with required information, and improve the overall effectiveness of their mailings.

Automated Business Reply Mail® (ABRM) has over 40 enhancements to its system. A major improvement was made to the ABRM website to provide customers an online self-service tool to create approved USPS camera-ready artwork for domestic Reply Mail pieces in just a few steps. With 24/7 availability and no need to wait to receive artwork, this tool reduces customers' time and the cost associated with the generation of artwork.

Business Reply Mail® (BRM) enables a sender to provide a recipient with a convenient, prepaid reply envelope or postcard for replying to a mailing. ABRM system enhancements also included enabling placing Intelligent Mail barcodes on BRM and other reply mailpieces to increase mail visibility.

Alternate Postage Payment for Greeting Cards appeals to the consumer's desire for convenience by including a pre-paid postage envelope with the card purchase. Consumers just sign, address and drop the greeting card in the mail. This product is currently in a market test.

Election Mail. The Postal Service engaged in a wide variety of communications with officials representing various election and political mail leadership and consultancy groups leading up to the 2012 elections, and provided over 8,000 Election Mail Program Kits to local and state election officials to support planning and preparations for mailings.

Advertising

The 2011 Saturation & High Density Incentive Program was developed to encourage additional volume and reward existing mailers with an earned rebate for exceeding a threshold. Of the 919 certified participants, 35 percent exceeded their threshold and earned rebates. Over 298 million pieces of incremental volume were generated resulting in over $41.2 million in incremental revenue and over $14.5 million net to us after attributable cost and rebates.

Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) enables both large and small mailers to use the Simplified Addressing label format where no names or addresses are required on mailpieces. It eliminates the need for small volume mailers to purchase and maintain a mailing list. Every Door Direct Mail added a new set of online tools to the usps.com website that provides a simple, more intuitive interface. Mailers are able to use and pay for Every Door Direct Mail online and enjoy new options including credit card payment, account history, customer registration and a Post Office Locator. The new interface for Every Door Direct Mail also provides increased data and reporting capabilities for Every Door Direct Mail-Retail and Every Door Direct Mail-Commercial activity through the integration with Point of Sale and PostalOne!. Every Door Direct Mail-Commercial generated $237 million in revenue from large mailers. Every Door Direct Mail-Retail generated $61.5 million in revenue from small businesses such as restaurants, dry cleaners, doctors and local merchants.

Direct mail faces competition from alternate media. As mobile technology continues to evolve, mail has the potential to offer greater value and continue to be a relevant part of the marketing mix. The 2012 Mobile Commerce and Personalization Promotion was developed to promote the use of direct mail with mobile commerce, as well as develop personalized experiences for consumers through their mail and mobile technology. This promotion yielded over 3.4 billion in new mail volume and over $730 million in revenue from more than 1,200 participants. The 2013 promotion will seek to generate interest in the various uses of mobile barcodes in direct mail and grow awareness of the ways in which technology can improve direct mail.

The Postal Regulatory Commission approved a Standard Mail market dominant agreement between Valassis Direct Mail, Inc. and USPS. In the Negotiated Service Agreement, Valassis receives competitive pricing while the Postal Service gains assurances of new mail volume. The agreement is intended to protect existing mailers and the Postal Service in terms of mail diversion and movement by advertisers to other means of distribution.

Information and Entertainment

Working closely with its business partners, USPS continued to provide outreach, programs and support to the periodicals industry to meet the challenges of digital conversion. By promoting the ways in which digital elements and content can be incorporated into publications, and engaging in constructive dialogue focused on increasing the value of hard copy publications and mail volume, USPS is helping the industry move to a multi-channel marketing approach that aligns with current consumer trends.

Shipping

Priority Mail Regional Rate Box C, the largest USPS-produced box, helped to fuel a 4.3 percent growth in Priority Mail volume and a 5.4 percent growth in Priority Mail revenue compared to 2011. These boxes, along with Boxes A and B, are designed to meet the needs of commercial, online businesses and e-retailers who ship to local and regionally-based customers.

For high-volume customers, USPS introduced Priority Mail Open and Distribute tray boxes. This service enables customers to ship a variety of classes of mail by Priority Mail to Postal facilities for processing and delivery to customers. Tray boxes improve processing efficiency to better meet customer needs.

USPS strengthened its niche offerings, introducing USPS Package Intercept. The fee-based competitive service allows customers to request an item be intercepted prior to delivery. This meets the needs of businesses that want to intercept an item due to billing problems, buyer's remorse or addressing errors. Items are redirected as Return to Sender, Hold For Pickup or to another location.

USPS Returns Services took steps to help position us as the preferred destination for returned packages. We provided customers with easy start-up and low IT expenses by instituting a new cloud-hosted technology for label printing. Returns integration was initiated with a major online marketplace. As a result, Parcel Returns Services experienced 23 percent growth in volume and 24 percent growth in revenue in FY 2012.

Parcel Select is an economical ground delivery service that continues to prove itself as an attractive shipping option for large private-industry shippers that rely on the reach of USPS because we deliver to every home and business in the nation. With a volume increase of 30.4 percent in fiscal year 2012 (excluding Parcel Select Lightweight), Parcel Select offers last-mile shipping with high reliability, affordability and visibility. This product also offers options for lightweight shipping to meet the needs of the growing e-commerce marketplace.

International Mail

USPS released Global Commercial Plus Pricing (CPP) which allows customers to receive reduced prices
if they commit to a minimum revenue threshold and annual shipments with certain Postal products. As of
Sept. 30, 2012, 119 CPP agreements have closed, representing an annual revenue commitment to us.

The Postal Service submitted several proposals for resolutions and amendments of the "Acts of the Union" during the 2012 Universal Postal Union (UPU) Congress. Particular focus was placed on the quality improvement program, customs, visibility, electronic data interchange and automated settlement.

To assist federal agencies in the detection and prevention of violations to federal import and export laws and ensure organizational compliance, a Global Trade Compliance (GTC) office has been established under International Operations. New electronic "data" screening processes have been implemented to identify mailpieces that need to be isolated from the mailstream and presented to the USPS Inspection Service and other federal agencies for additional screening.

The USPS center was named 2011 EMS Call Center of the Year by foreign posts. USPS attained silver level recognition by the EMS Cooperative based on responsiveness to foreign inquires, as measured independently by Price Waterhouse.