Shipping Isn’t Just About Moving Packages—It’s About Moving Your Business Forward

When changes like the 2025 USPS shipping updates cause increased costs and disrupted workflows, having the right information and partner makes all the difference.

What’s Changing with USPS?

The 2025 USPS changes are an opportunity for you to rethink your shipping logistics. However, we know that with these pricing adjustments, network changes, and new policies, it can become overwhelming and a bit tricky to navigate without a proactive 3PL fulfillment partner.

So, below, we’ve laid out the top two USPS updates that become effective January 19, 2025, how they might impact your business, and what you can do to prepare.

1. Higher Shipping Rates

With these changes, shipping costs for lightweight and small-item deliveries will rise. This is important because it may potentially cut into your margins and require adjustments to customer communication when it comes to pricing and delivery times.

These changes include higher rates for:

• Parcel Select: Average increase of 9.2%, with delivery unit entry rates rising 10.3%.
• Ground Advantage: Up 3.9%, with commercial rates slightly lower.
• Priority Mail & Priority Mail Express: Both increasing 3.2%.

Here are three ways you can consider working to combat these price increases:

1. Begin by examining your current shipping data to understand the impact of your shipping weights and zones. By understanding your shipping profile, you’ll discover that some weights and zones may have a greater impact than others. You then can make a plan to address those specific areas.
2. If making a carrier change is too high of a risk for your business, consider exploring alternative carrier options and then leveraging them to drive down costs with your current carriers. Over the last several years, many new carriers have come to the market with aggressive rates and provide great service. Don’t be shy about exploring out-of-the-box solutions and using them to your advantage.
3. Evaluating your packaging and how it impacts shipping costs is a key component to reducing carrier rate impacts. At a minimum, you should be analyzing your box sizes once a year—especially when introducing new product mixes and new carriers.

Proactive adjustments today can protect your margins, build customer loyalty, and keep your business moving forward.

2. Fewer Drop-Off Locations for Consolidators

The USPS will reduce drop-off points for consolidators like DHL eCommerce and UPS Mail Innovations from 10,000 locations to 500 large hubs. This policy change will limit consolidators’ ability to drop off packages at the closest entry point (DDU), driving up costs and potentially causing longer lead times and workflow disruptions.

Here are three ways you can be prepared:

1. Review your shipping data to identify how much of your volume depends on services like DHL eCommerce or UPS Mail Innovations. Analyze where potential delays or increased costs may occur and prioritize shipments that might require alternate solutions.
2. Partner with carriers and fulfillment providers that can offer flexible options and adjust quickly to disruptions. For instance, some regional or niche carriers may provide faster solutions or better pricing for certain zones, giving you a stronger competitive edge.
3. If lead times are likely to increase, develop customer messaging that sets clear expectations for delivery windows. This is particularly important during peak seasons when customer patience is limited. Update your workflows to ensure consistent on-time delivery performance and reduce the risk of customer dissatisfaction.

By planning ahead and working with a proactive 3PL provider, you can turn these changes into an opportunity to streamline your workflows, improve efficiency, and continue to exceed your customers’ expectations.

Don’t Let These Changes Put Your Customer Experience at Risk

Customers demand fast, affordable, and reliable shipping—without compromise. When customers experience late deliveries or unexpected fees at checkout, their loyalty evaporates, and they often turn to competitors who promise better service.

With higher USPS rates and fewer drop-off locations, the stakes have never been higher. But, if you or your 3PL partner is working proactively, you have the opportunity to turn the 2025 USPS changes into a competitive advantage.

It will be important to highlight clear pricing, offer real-time tracking, and hold your logistics partners to high performance standards. If you do, you’ll not only retain your customers—you’ll turn them into loyal advocates who trust your brand, no matter the challenges.

Put in the work now to get ahead of the 2025 USPS changes. If your 3PL provider can’t keep up, schedule a discovery call and discover why building a proactive logistics plan will allow you to adapt to any promotion, growth strategy, or market change that comes your way.