Offer More Products and Pricing Based on Mailer Needs

The Postal Service will use its new pricing flexibility to offer customized products and pricing to business customers. This new flexibility will be used to develop products, services, and pricing that can quickly respond to evolving market needs since changes will be on an annual basis. New round-trip products are under evaluation to provide increased customer value and utility. Vote by Mail represents an area that can benefit from round-trip pricing. It appeals to voters because of convenience, privacy, and security. At the same time, government officials appreciate the value of mail for elections because ballots can be tracked, satisfying federal requirements to maintain a paper trail for every vote. Vote by Mail also presents the potential of lowering costs associated with polling while increasing voter turnout, especially during local elections. By offering customized round-trip pricing and the security of Intelligent Mail tracking, the Postal Service will encourage more state and local jurisdictions to consider using Vote by Mail.

The Postal Service is also exploring a round-trip product designed for other mail applications. The principal market for this product consists of mailers sending disc-based media rentals, such as movies, audio books, and computer games. Customers will benefit from easy payment options, and the Postal Service will benefit from lower handling and accounting costs for the incoming return pieces.

A potential new offering of First-Class Mail will be designed for business needs requiring the speed and dependability of First-Class Mail but not the feature of automatic forwarding or return services. Advertising mail, for example, may require delivery within specific service windows so that customers will respond to time-sensitive promotions. Such mail, however, may not need the forwarding and return services included in current First-Class Mail prices. A lower priced First-Class Mail offering without forwarding and return service may offer advertisers a better value for specific campaigns or targeted customers.

The Postal Service is building capabilities to support this new pricing flexibility that allows channel-based and customized pricing approaches. For retail customers, channel-based pricing might be considered with different prices for services purchased at the counter, on the Internet, or at a self-service kiosk. For high-volume customers, customized pricing might be based on requirements such as volume commitments, special preparation options, or network penetration. These new pricing approaches along with future pricing initiatives will require significant infrastructure changes to support an evolving, customer-driven environment.