It’s the most wonderful time of year and the USPS has announced that starting November 17th they will be delivering mail seven days a week, Christmas included!  TheUSPS Cookies USPS has an estimated growth of 12 % over last year in package services with an expected 470 million packages to go out (read more about this increase at dmnews.com).

 

Last month Shop.org released an announcement that states: “Both retailers and consumers are gearing up for Holiday 2014. This year, 56 percent of holiday shoppers expect to do at least some part of their holiday shopping online and online holiday shoppers plan to spend 16% more than all holiday shoppers on gifts, decorations and food for the holidays.”

 

Likewise, they predicted an 8-11% e-commerce sales growth this holiday season.  As a result retailers are gearing up for the e-commerce challenge focusing on SEO and making sure that their websites are mobile optimized.  In the light of the predicted increases, etailers are going above and beyond the call of duty to guarantee that their customers will receive their packages in time for the holiday.  Amazon, for example, has been testing the effectiveness of cab services in urban areas to open up their 2014 holiday delivery schedules (see article Will Amazon Start Using Taxi Cabs to Deliver Packages?).

 

Phil Wohaba from Fortune speculates that the Postal Service’s “expanded delivery” is so to “compete with the large package shipping companies” and make up for some lost revenue (read article).  Contrary to Wohaba’s statement, however, the USPS replies that “the decision to deliver seven days a week is an operational one based on our own increased package volumes” (read more from TargetMarketing.com).

 

One thing is for sure, whether or not the Postal Service is trying to compete with UPS and FedEx, they certainly will be ready to deliver your packages this holiday season and they’ll be doing it with some very merry price decreases as well.

 

Here are the deadlines that the USPS issued for their 2014 Christmas Shipping Deadlines.

  • 2 – First-Class Mail International/Priority Mail International
  • 10 – Priority Mail Express International
  • 15 – Standard Post
  • 17 – Global Express Guaranteed
  • 20 – First-Class Mail/Priority Mail (domestic)
  • 23 – Priority Mail Express (domestic)

 

 

About the Author: Jim Gibbs

Vice President of Sales & Marketing at The Dingley Press. Jim has been with Dingley since 2002 and lives in Maine near our Lisbon, Maine plant location.

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