Post Office Wants to Shift Focus from Mail to Ecommerce Deliveries

Verified and Reviewed

In this article

Join 26,741 eCommerce Leaders Today

USPS has floated a new proposal to Congress that would see it reducing mail delivery from six to five days a week while expanding packaging deliveries to seven days.

The shipping world has changed dramatically over the past decade. Since 2007, total U.S. mail volume has declined 31% to 146 million pieces, including a 41% drop in first-class mail, its most profitable product. At the same time, ecommerce has exploded, offering a way to plug the lost revenue while also adding burden to USPS operations as it handles more packages. USPS has already started to dip its toes into 7-day a week delivery to manage the 20 million packages it averages daily. It now delivers some Amazon.com packages on Sundays and also other ecommerce retail fulfillment during the busy Christmas holiday season.

The agency lost $3.9 billion in 2018, its 12th straight year of losses. According to the agency, this move better reflects the market conditions and would save it billions of dollars per year. Republican and Democratic members of Congress, however are opposed to making a change to mail deliveries.

Read the full article here.

Written By:

Jeremy Stewart

Jeremy Stewart

Jeremy Stewart leads customer success at Cahoot, helping merchants achieve high-performance logistics through smart technology and process optimization. With a background in both ecommerce operations and client services, Jeremy ensures that every merchant using Cahoot gets measurable results—whether they’re scaling from one warehouse to many or managing complex returns.

Cahoot P2P Returns Logo

Turn Returns Into New Revenue

Convert returns into second-chance sales and new customers, right from your store