USPS Commercial Plus going away per USPS...does that mean no more discounts?

[electrola_man]

Will we all pay the same rates as at the counter since USPS Commercial Plus is going away with the January 2019 new USPS rates?

[mam98031]

No it does not mean the discounts are going away.  There was Commercial Base and Commercial Plus.  They are doing away with the latter price option.

[johnrj1226]

Commercial Rate Plus discount today  isn't what it used to be.  On the USPS services that it is offered the discount is ~3% greater than the Commerical  Rate.

USPS has been trimming  pack teh  discoutns slowly over the  past few years.

When  USPS announces a  price increase it is based on the retail rate.  By increasing retail prices and reducing discounts they yield a greater price increase  than the published %ages.

What will be interesting to most sellers is how the zone based costs for First Class Pages will work out in  2019.

[electrola_man]

I agree that the First Class changes will be significant.  I've seen the table of the new rates.  I don't know how often I ship to which zone, but certainly there will be increases.  I have typically offered "Free Shipping" with things that could go First Class since the price was the same regardless of destination, but I might change that practice now.  It looks like Parcel Select Ground is generally decreasing, such that it might actually be less-expensive than Priority Mail more often now, as it seems it should.

[orangehound]

Don't worry ... eBay will "negotiate" a great USPS price for eBay sellers, just like they did for 2018.

(That is sarcasm based on eBay's comments from early this year ... the only negotiation eBay does with the USPS is for China sellers).

[johnrj1226]

My main concern with  the increase in shipping rates which all 3 do this time of year - USPS, UPS & FedEx is that seller to ship costs have continually gone up even after commercial and/or commercial plus discounting.  e.g.  Small flat rate box (retail price) in 2010  $4.95 in 2018 or a 42% increase over  5 years.  The  gap between on line buying  vs at the  B & M is reduced.  Lurking in the future is the state sales tax issue - some states have already gone to taxing on line purchases - the gap get closer.  Once  a few do it, the remaining will jump in shortly - governments (federal, state, city, county ,etc) luv new sources of revenue without much  effort on their part so the can PACR more money like inebriated sailors right out of boot camp.

Sales will be  affected  for sure.  Sellers will drop out, of course, the strong will survive.

[mam98031]

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@orangehound wrote:

Don't worry ... eBay will "negotiate" a great USPS price for eBay sellers, just like they did for 2018.

(That is sarcasm based on eBay's comments from early this year ... the only negotiation eBay does with the USPS is for China sellers).

---

This is a myth and one that continues to be told on threads.  USPS does NOT allow negotiations on all rates.  Not to Ebay, not to Amazon, not to any online provider of postage.  

There is NO negotiating on First Class Parcel Domestic.  The commercial rates are the best any provider on the internet can get which is why every provider out there has the same rate.  Yet somehow Ebay gets negative statement made about the rates and lack of negotiation.  You can't negotiate what isn't allowed to be negotiated by USPS.

Now FCP International can be negotiated.  And Ebay has, at least in the last several years [13-14% off], gotten a BETTER rate than Amazon offers.  Or if Amazon has a better rate, they do NOT pass the full discount to the sellers.

I do however hope Ebay has better luck this time negotiating Priority Mail and other expedited versions offered.  We can all keep our fingers crossed for that.

[orangehound]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@orangehound wrote:

Don't worry ... eBay will "negotiate" a great USPS price for eBay sellers, just like they did for 2018.

(That is sarcasm based on eBay's comments from early this year ... the only negotiation eBay does with the USPS is for China sellers).

---

This is a myth and one that continues to be told on threads.  USPS does NOT allow negotiations on all rates.  Not to Ebay, not to Amazon, not to any online provider of postage.  

There is NO negotiating on First Class Parcel Domestic.  The commercial rates are the best any provider on the internet can get which is why every provider out there has the same rate.  Yet somehow Ebay gets negative statement made about the rates and lack of negotiation.  You can't negotiate what isn't allowed to be negotiated by USPS.

Now FCP International can be negotiated.  And Ebay has, at least in the last several years [13-14% off], gotten a BETTER rate than Amazon offers.  Or if Amazon has a better rate, they do NOT pass the full discount to the sellers.

I do however hope Ebay has better luck this time negotiating Priority Mail and other expedited versions offered.  We can all keep our fingers crossed for that.

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I think you missed my joke ... eBay was the one who told us in January 2018 that they "negotiated" lower rates with the USPS, only to give eBay sellers the standard Commercial Base and Commercial Plus rates.

And, by the way, it is possible for a large company to negotiate with the USPS, but it requires that the company does pre-sorting and handles other logistics.  Amazon has done this, for example.

[johnrj1226]

Here are couple links for you teh first is the final  prices for 2019, the second is an ecommerce analysis of the Oct proposed price changes for 2019 which is pretty much the same as the final numbers

https://pe.usps.com/pricechange/index

https://www.ecommercebytes.com/2018/10/13/the-online-sellers-guide-to-usps-shipping-rates-for-2019/

[mam98031]

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@orangehound wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

---

@orangehound wrote:

Don't worry ... eBay will "negotiate" a great USPS price for eBay sellers, just like they did for 2018.

(That is sarcasm based on eBay's comments from early this year ... the only negotiation eBay does with the USPS is for China sellers).

---

This is a myth and one that continues to be told on threads.  USPS does NOT allow negotiations on all rates.  Not to Ebay, not to Amazon, not to any online provider of postage.  

There is NO negotiating on First Class Parcel Domestic.  The commercial rates are the best any provider on the internet can get which is why every provider out there has the same rate.  Yet somehow Ebay gets negative statement made about the rates and lack of negotiation.  You can't negotiate what isn't allowed to be negotiated by USPS.

Now FCP International can be negotiated.  And Ebay has, at least in the last several years [13-14% off], gotten a BETTER rate than Amazon offers.  Or if Amazon has a better rate, they do NOT pass the full discount to the sellers.

I do however hope Ebay has better luck this time negotiating Priority Mail and other expedited versions offered.  We can all keep our fingers crossed for that.

---

I think you missed my joke ... eBay was the one who told us in January 2018 that they "negotiated" lower rates with the USPS, only to give eBay sellers the standard Commercial Base and Commercial Plus rates.

And, by the way, it is possible for a large company to negotiate with the USPS, but it requires that the company does pre-sorting and handles other logistics.  Amazon has done this, for example.

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Ebay did negotiate lower FCP International rates with USPS.  No online provider can negotiate lower FCP Domestic.

I get it that there are lots of sellers out there that think Ebay can, but the truth is they can't.

Ebay by contract can NOT announce what specific discounts they have negotiated, so while Ebay did say they had negotiated some better rates, which they did, they were not specific because they can't.  It was sellers that assumed things or read more into it that was stated.

The negotiations of a large company on presorting rates is COMPLETELY different than what an OnLine provider of postage can do for obvious reasons.  Amazon can ONLY do it for what Amazon ships, not their sellers on the site.  Which is why Ebay, Etsy, Stamps.com, etc can't negotiate FCP domestic.  You aren't talking about the same thing here.

[mam98031]

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@johnrj1226 wrote:

Here are couple links for you teh first is the final  prices for 2019, the second is an ecommerce analysis of the Oct proposed price changes for 2019 which is pretty much the same as the final numbers

https://pe.usps.com/pricechange/index

https://www.ecommercebytes.com/2018/10/13/the-online-sellers-guide-to-usps-shipping-rates-for-2019/

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Thank you for the links.  I'm aware of the price increases per USPS coming in January.  I think you may have misunderstood something I said.  But I'm confident other posters will find the links very useful as I did when I first saw them.

[vettenoodle]

Thanks for the links. I ship a lot first class and have to start thinking through pricing now to be ready in time!