Smart Mailer’s Guide to January vs Mid-Year USPS Price Changes

The USPS price change can significantly impact your business, mainly when it occurs more than once a year. It mainly adjusts the postal rates every January. However, in recent years, they’ve also started making additional updates around July. 

The January price changes cover a vast range of USPS services. Businesses get sufficient notice to prepare in advance. Mid-year changes, on the other hand, are sudden and affect rates only across key services. It provides shorter notice than the January USPS price change, making it harder to prepare. Rising inflation, increased operating costs, and declining mail volumes are the primary contributors to these price updates. This blog will help you distinguish between the two price changes and learn the best strategies to minimize mailing expenses. 

Key Takeaways 

• USPS now updates postage rates twice a year, in January and mid-year. 
• The January USPS price change is more predictable and planned. 
• These price hikes primarily impact First-Class Mail, Marketing Mail, and Priority Mail. 
• Two price changes per year make it harder to forecast and manage mailing budgets. 
• Businesses may face increasing per-piece costs and shrinking bulk discounts. 
• USPS provides discounted commercial rates and mailing incentives for businesses. 
• An address validation software is necessary to reduce mailing waste. 
• Businesses should consider an automated mailing solution to save time and money.

The January USPS price change is the primary one. It is scheduled and covers a wide variety of mailing services. The USPS provides ample notice, allowing individuals and businesses to plan. 

Mid-year changes typically occur in July and are newer. They’re often small, but still affect rates across key services, such as First-Class Mail and Marketing Mail. The notice period is shorter, making it challenging to prepare for the USPS price change. 

These are some key differences: 

Note: For a comprehensive view of the latest USPS price change, please refer to the official list.

Rising Inflation 

The USPS price change is a necessary step to keep up with the rising fuel, transportation, and labor costs. They can file for a price increase twice a year to the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to align themselves with inflation. 

Operating Costs 

The USPS is responsible for handling billions of mailings every year. Sorting, delivery, transport fleet, and storage facilities aren’t cheap. They need to implement a price hike to offset the rising operating costs. 

Mail Volume 

Fewer people send letters and postcards now. It means USPS generates less revenue from traditional mail. It makes the USPS price change essential for the organization to remain financially stable. 

Regulatory Limits 

The USPS can’t simply increase prices as it sees fit. There are rules and regulations for USPS price changes. The PRC must approve any price hike before the postal service enforces its new rates. However, with the recent reforms, the USPS now has more flexibility to make mid-year changes. 

Service Performance Goals 

Sometimes, rate increases are tied to promises of better delivery speed or reliability. These improvements do take some time to be visible to end users. 

Also Read: USPS Tracking Not Updating in Transit

Clean Up Your Mailing Lists 

Invalid, obsolete, and duplicate addresses can result in significant resource wastage. Every undeliverable or returned mail will burden your direct mail budget. Use reliable Address Verification software to ensure your mailing is accurate and deliverable. It is the best step to reduce waste and improve delivery. 

Switch to Presorted or Commercial Rates 

Please note that these rates are only available to businesses that send high-volume mailings. The postage rates are comparatively lower when you use automation or third-party mailing tools. Presorting your mailings can make a real difference. Check out the USPS commercial rates to learn how much you can save. 

Print and Mail Only the Necessary Stuff 

Not every piece of information needs to go out via postal mail. Review your email campaigns and identify what’s necessary. Are they targeted? You should aim to send fewer, more targeted mailings to reduce costs without compromising impact.

Savvy marketers combine physical mail with email or SMS to create omnichannel customer journeys, reducing the need to send physical mail. 

The USPS price change can create a ripple effect in your mailing budget. These differences can be significant, especially when sending high-volume mailings. For instance, the price of a First-Class letter increases by 5 cents. 

It might not sound like much. However, if you are sending a campaign of 10,000 pieces per month, that’s an additional monthly expenditure of $500. Over a year, it’s $6,000. This amount of money could be allocated toward marketing, staffing, and operations. 

USPS price changes make budgeting more complicated for businesses. You might plan your spending based on January rates, only to see your costs jump again six months later. It could severely impact your forecasts and ROI on direct mail campaigns. 

Here’s what typically happens with each USPS price change: 

• Per-piece costs go up 
• Bulk discounts shrink 
• Campaign budgets get squeezed 
• Mail volumes drop to compensate 

If you’re not watching these changes closely, you could end up overspending. Some businesses even try to cut corners in the wrong places. It is essential to stay informed about USPS price changes to build flexible budgets and utilize tools to stay ahead of the curve. 

PostGrid’s Print & Mail API lets you take control of the entire printing and mailing process. You don’t have to invest in expensive printing equipment, stationery, or a dedicated staff. It also automates your entire workflow, including printing, sorting, stuffing, addressing, and sending mailpieces from a unified dashboard.  

You also get access to USPS commercial postage rates, even if you’re a small business. Hence, significant savings are assured, primarily if you conduct numerous bulk mailings. Moreover, PostGrid helps you fast-track your workflows with native integrations for CRMs, ERPs, marketing automation tools, etc. It saves you from the manual work typically necessary to set up and run campaigns. Lastly, you can also use our direct mail calculator to get a fair estimate for your mailings.  

Sign up now to save on your postage costs with automated direct mail.