USPS mail volume down, ad mail takes biggest hit
According to the US Postal Service’s Household Diary Study for FY 2008, ad mail has declined 5.24% since 2006. Ad mail volumes for 2008 were at 99.4 billion pieces compared with 104.9 billion in 2006. This is a greater percentage decrease than correspondence mail, which dipped only half a percent in the same time frame.
Transactional mail dropped 2.34% during that period. In 2008, 41.7 billion transaction pieces were mailed.
The report is part of a 20-year study by the agency to understand mail flows and the marketplace changes that affect them. The report cites e-mail correspondence, online payments and digital advertising as reasons behind the decline in mail volume.
Standard Regular Mail remains the most used category for direct mailers. Seventy percent of the ad mail in 2008 fit this category. Nonprofit Standard Mail was 14% of the ad mail and First Class Mail was 17%.
