Letters to Santa celebrates 100 years.

2012 USPS Holiday Mobile Shopping Promotion and Webinar

Direct mail combined with mobile technology can be a convenient way for consumers to do their holiday shopping. The USPS^® 2012 Holiday Mobile Shopping Promotion is designed to help merchants use direct mail to put their mobile-optimized offers, product descriptions, and advertised savings into consumers’ hands in time for Cyber Week — the busiest online shopping time of the year.

Registration is open now for the 2012 Holiday Mobile Shopping Promotion, which runs from November 7 through November 21. For promotion details click here or go to https://www.usps.com/business/holiday-mobile-shopping.htm.

An upcoming webinar will provide an overview of the promotion, including eligibility requirements, registration, how to make mail work with mobile technology, and more.

2012 Holiday Mobile Shopping Promotion Webinar

October 24, 2012

12 noon EDT

Click here to register for webinar or go to https://usps.webex.com/usps/onstage/g.php?d=993337055&t=a

Call-in toll-free number (US/Canada): 1-877-668-4493

Access Code: 993 337 055.

From a USPS Industry Alert:

Please join us on Wednesday, October 24 from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Eastern for a “2013 Price Changes” webinar presentation by Jeff Williamson, Vice President of Pricing.   This webinar will address the business impacts of the proposed “Mailing and Shipping Services Price Change Effective January 27, 2013.” 

Instructions for participating in the webinar appear below. 

—————————————————————————————————-

Event:  2013 Price Changes
Date: Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Time 3:00-4:00 pm, Eastern Daylight Time

Event number: 996 490 936
——————————————————-
To join the online event
——————————————————-
1. Click here to join the online event.
Or copy and paste the following link to a browser:
https://usps.webex.com/usps/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=996490936
2. Click “Join Now”(Please note the start time listed for 2:30 is for webinar set-up only. The webinar begins at 3:00pm)

3. If prompted to run the software, click “Run”. (If you encounter problems viewing the webinar, you may need to exit and clear your browser.  Re -enter, this time declining to run the software.)
——————————————————-
To join the teleconference only
——————————————————-
To receive a call back, provide your phone number when you join the event, or call the number below and enter the access code.
Call-in toll-free number (US/Canada): 1-877-668-4493
Access code: 996 490 936

Full-Service Technology Credit–In order to encouragemailers to convert to full-service Intelligent Mail, the Postal Service is proposing to offer a “Full-Service Technology Credit” (tech credit). This credit is intended to help offset the investment required to implement the necessary hardware and software infrastructure changes to support full-service mailings.

Eligibility Criteria

The mail volume of all “Permit Holders” and “Mailing Agents”, as identified on a postage statement, would be evaluated across qualifying permits for each business location/Customer Registration ID (CRID). Each CRID that exceeds an annual volume of 125,000 qualifyingpieces would be eligible to redeem a tech credit. All CRIDs would be considered for a tech credit regardless of current full-service status.

To determine the level of qualifying mail volume for each business location/CRID, the following steps would be taken: Mail volume associated with each permit as defined in the “Permit Holder” and/or “Mailing Agent” fields would be evaluated.

Permit types would include:

Permit Imprint

Metered

OMAS Imprint

OMAS Metered

Precancelled Stamp

Periodicals

Ghost

The following full-service eligible mailings would be considered as qualifying mail volume:

FCM automation letters, cards, and flats.

Standard Mail automation letters and flats–includes IMb

Enhanced Carrier Route (ECR), except saturation flats.

Periodicals automation/barcoded letters and flats–

includes ECR letters & flats

BPM barcoded flats

The mail volume for a one-year period would be used in the evaluation.

To be considered for the tech credit, permits must have been opened and business locations (CRIDs) established.

When determining a mailer’s qualifying volume, the Postal Service will consider the “Permit Holder” and “Mailing Agent” volume for each CRID and use the higher of the two volumes to determine the amount of the tech credit.

>The mail volume of the “Permit Holder” for each permit associated with a CRID would be aggregated.

>The mail volume of the “Mailing Agent” for each permit associated with a CRID would be aggregated.

Each CRID that exceeds 125,000 full-service eligible

pieces in annual mail volume (total of all eligible volume from all eligible permits) would be awarded one tech credit as follows:

125,001-500,000 pieces = $2,000 postage credit

500,001-2,000,000 pieces = $3,000 postage credit

2,000,001 + pieces = $5,000 postage credit

Each business location would be eligible to redeem only one tech credit.

>In the event there are multiple CRIDs identifying the same business location which have linked permits, the CRID with the highest eligible volume would receive the tech credit.

Notification Process

The Postal Service would provide advance notification to the industry regarding tech credit program status. This messaging would occur prior to the beginning of the promotion.

Redemption Process

The following credit redemption guidelines would be used:

Any permit linked to a qualified CRID may redeem the tech credit as a postage credit in mailings that contain 90% or more full-service pieces.

To apply this postage credit, the permit must be the

paying permit in the mailing (identified as Permit Holder).

The following permit types may be used:

> Permit Imprint

> Additional Postage (ADDPOS)

> OMAS Imprint

> OMAS Metered

> Metered.

> Precancelled Stamp

> Periodicals

Mailers may redeem the tech credit through eDoc submission via Mail.dat or Mail.XML. Postal Wizard submissions would not be eligible.

Upon submission of an eligible mailing, the tech credit would be automatically applied in full.

> A partial tech credit amount could be applied to statements if the tech credit amount is greater than the total postage for the postage statement.

> The remaining tech credit amount would be applied to subsequent statement(s).

The tech credit redemption timeframe is proposed to run for a one-year period.

When final, further details regarding the “Full-Service Technology Credit” will be available on RIBBSTM at https://ribbs.usps.gov.

August 1 – Sept. 30, 2013:

Product Samples: Designed to re-invigorate product sampling via the mail, the Product Samples promotion will provide mailers with a 5 percent upfront postage discount on qualifying mail that contains product samples. The promotion will raise awareness of the new “Simple Samples” pricing in Standard Mail, effective Jan. 27. Registration is May 1, 2013, to Sept. 30, 2013.

via Promotions & Incentive Programs for First-Class & Standard Mail.

August 1 – Sept. 30, 2013:

Picture Permit: The Picture Permit promotion is designed to promote the use of picture permit imprint indicia, which can improve a mailpiece’s visibility and impact as a marketing tool. First-Class Mail letters and cards will be discounted 1 cent per mailpiece, and Standard Mail letters and cards will be discounted 2 cents per mailpiece. Registration is June 15, 2013, to Sept. 30, 2013.

via Promotions & Incentive Programs for First-Class & Standard Mail.

Today marks the 100 days to USPS price changes date of January 27th.

Ready????

Nov. 1, 2013, – Dec. 31, 2013

Mobile Buy-it-Now: This promotion provide mailers with an upfront 2 percent postage discount to encourage them to adopt and invest in technologies that enhance how consumers interact and engage with mail and demonstrate how direct mail combined with mobile technology can be a convenient method for consumers to do their holiday shopping. Registration is Sept. 15, 2013, to Dec. 31, 2013.

via Promotions & Incentive Programs for First-Class & Standard Mail.