Tag: North America

Forever stamps a hot item as postal rate increase looms

Posted by | May 7, 2008 | |

On Monday 12th May, the forever stamp will go up a penny to 42 cents, as will the cost of sending a first-class letter.

So customers are flocking to post offices across the country to buy forever stamps at the going rate of 41 cents.

Forever stamps allow customers to lock in their postage rate regardless of how much a stamp costs in the future.

Nationwide, more than 60 million forever stamps are being sold daily, up from 30 million a day just a few weeks ago, the U.S. Postal Service said.

Postage rates last went up in May 2007, with a first-class stamp jumping 2 cents to the current 41-cent rate.

the past, raising postage rates was a complex process involving hearings before the independent Postal Regulatory Commission, a process that could take nearly a year.

But under the new law regulating the post office that took effect in late 2006, the agency can increase rates with 45-days notice as long as changes are within the rate of inflation for the previous 12 months. The Postal Regulatory Commission calculated that at 2.9 percent through January. That limited the first-class rate to an increase of just over a penny.

Under the new law, postal prices will be adjusted each May, the Postal Service said. Officials said they plan to give 90 days notice of future changes, twice what is required by law.

While the charge for the first ounce of a first-class letter rises to 42 cents, the price of each added ounce will remain 17 cents, so a two-ounce letter will go up a penny to 59 cents.

Sales of forever stamps are expected to increase throughout the week. More than 6 billion forever stamps have been sold since they were first offered in April 2007.

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Jupiter Research Study Finds Multi-Channel E-Commerce Expansion Vital To Online Retail Success

Posted by | May 7, 2008 | |

ChannelAdvisor, the leading provider of e-commerce channel management solutions, today announced the results of a JupiterResearch study on marketing and sales strategies for online retailers. Sponsored by ChannelAdvisor and conducted by independent research firm JupiterResearch and Internet Retailer, the study provides in-depth insights into the fundamental issues driving multi-channel online retailing.

Seventy-five percent of online retailers surveyed cited multi-channel expansion as a key component in their marketing strategies. Ninety-eight percent report they market on at least two online channels.

“The results provide actionable information for retailers who are evaluating online programs including paid and organic search, and comparison shopping engines,” said Brad Wolansky, Vice President Global E-Commerce of The Orvis Company. “We partnered with ChannelAdvisor for solutions to help us manage our paid search and comparison shopping engine initiatives and they have provided good value including higher ROI and predictable rates of success.”

The recent findings deliver a unique perspective on how online retailers are capitalizing on the full spectrum of e-commerce channels and explore the benefits and the challenges of expanding their reach. It also focused on the area of third-party outsourcing and how to measure its success. Those retailers who choose to outsource should look to their e-commerce partners to develop performance metrics that demonstrate their long-term worth including lifetime customer value, product margins and customer retention.

“This survey suggests that ChannelAdvisor has a unique opportunity to help retailers assess where they in the multi-channel life cycle and the implications for moving forward,” said Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor. “Clearly, going multi-channel is the first step. To be truly successful, they need to define what they expect from their e-commerce solution providers in terms of marketing spend and efficiencies to judge the overall profitability of the relationship.”

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What's not in store: Merchants hold back imports

Posted by | May 7, 2008 | |

Latest industry report shows sharp drop in volume of shipments of retail goods, with weakness expected to flow through summer.

A significant drop in volume of imported retail goods into the United States is providing fresh evidence that a slowing economy has pinched American consumers’ ability to shop freely, according to an industry report Wednesday.

In-bound container traffic to the U.S. was down 4.8% in March from February, which traditionally is the slowest month of the year for retail-related imports, according to the latest joint monthly Port Tracker report from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and forecasting firm Global Insight.

That figure represented the lowest monthly volume since February 2006.

What’s more, the NRF forecasts that growth in-bound container traffic will remain at or below last year’s levels through the summer months “due to the underlying weakness in consumer demand in the U.S. economy,” said Jonathan Gold, vice president for supply chain and customs policy with the NRF.

Looking forward at year-over-year figures, Port Tracker estimates a 3.2% dip in April, a 4.8% fall in May, a 7% drop in June, and a 2% decline in July. In September, in-bound container traffic is finally seen rising by 3%.

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Potential job losses in mail, union warns

Posted by | May 6, 2008 | |

Canada Post’s new union president is warning Canadians that their mail delivery could be in jeopardy and hundreds of jobs could be lost.
In an interview with Sun Media, new Canada Post national union president Denis Lemelin accused the Conservatives and Canada Post CEO Moya Greene of attempting to deregulate postal services in Canada.
Lemelin pointed to the Harper government’s recently announced “strategic review” of Canada Post, set to examine which services should remain under the monopoly of Canada Post and which should become fair game in a competitive market.
A final report is expected in December.

Canada Post currently has a monopoly over the delivery of letters up to 500 grams to 15 million doors across the country.
Lemelin fears that deregulation could mean that Canadians in metropolitan areas might have their daily mail handled by UPS, Federal Express or Purolator.
“These private companies could decide to implement distribution centres in the greater areas and handle mail delivery for Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto,” he said.
He also warned that deregulation would result in hundreds of layoffs across Canada and an increase in stamp prices.
“The private sector would invest in the greater metropolitan areas — where it’s profitable,” he said.
“The public postal service would end up with less profitable sectors, such as rural areas.

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