In case you haven't heard, the post office recently made some awesome changes! Here are the 4 changes that have been made:
1) Rebranding: Express Mail will
be changed to Priority Mail Express (and Express Mail International will
be changed to Priority Mail Express International);
2) Estimated delivery: Priority Mail packages will have an
estimated service of 1 day, 2 days, or 3 days that will be displayed on
the payment receipt, online shipping label and in the USPS Tracking
information.
3) Insurance: Domestic Priority Mail will now include insurance with no additional charge.
4) International Tracking: Delivery Confirmation is now included for First Class Package
International Service, and Priority Mail International Flat Rate
Envelope and Small Flat Rate Box shipments going to the following
countries: Canada, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, Denmark, France,
Germany, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Israel, Netherlands, New
Zealand, Spain and Switzerland
Rebranding is probably the least exciting as that's just a change in appearance and no change in service. Estimated delivery is a nice change, but again, more of an appearance change than a change in service. Your package will still arrive in the same amount of time it would have before the change, you just get a better idea of when your package should arrive. But of course, the dates aren't guaranteed.
The two most exciting changes are the added insurance and the tracking for international packages!
The post office hasn't been real clear on the added insurance, but you will receive either $50 or $100 of free insurance with Priority Mail as of July 28th. Etsy states that any packages shipped with their labels will have $100 worth of insurance. Packages shipped with usps.com or other services may only carry $50. Either way that's a great addition!
Tracking to international destinations is very exciting! I don't know how many times I've had customers ask when their package should arrive. The last scanned destination would be SC CHICAGO IL (USPS), US and then nothing for over a week. It's very hard to tell your customer "Sorry, I wish I had more information for you. But that's all they gave me." So it's very nice to have scans all along the way. It also covers sellers for non delivery cases as well.
Currently these changes don't come with any price increases. I'm hoping that the increases we saw at the start of 2013 took care of all these changes. I just hope we don't see another increase in 2014. But for now, I'll enjoy these awesome changes :)
