The U.S postal service recently announced its 2019 rate change which will come into effect January 27, 2019. The impact may affect some sellers over others depending on the type of package being sent, the distance, and what services are used.

Here’s a highlight of the major price changes that can impact your store:

First-Class Package Service Switching to Zone-Based Pricing

First class packages will have the most complex changes out of the entire price change update. Currently, the weight of the package determines its cost but new changes will include the distance the package is being sent into the final cost. Zone 1, or the local area of the shipper will be significantly cheaper than zone 8, the farthest distance you can ship. For light-weight shipments that weigh less than a pound, first-class package services will still be cost-effective.
Overall, the 2019 rate change is expected to increase the 5-year average to 31% from 19%.
To reflect the zone changes for your product listings, visit Pitney Bowes Postal ZIP Zones and Zone Charts for domestic and international zone information.

Priority Mail Rate Increase

On average, priority mail retail prices will increase by 6.6% while priority mail commercial prices will only increase an average of 3.2%. You can expect to see balloon pricing to be removed from services that include the new DIM weighting rules. Balloon-rate pricing applied to pieces that were no more than 84 inches in combined length and girth and weighed less than 20 pounds, restricted only to zones 1 through 4.
Other changes include priority mail commercial plus pricing (weight-based) to be the same as commercial base pricing.
The biggest change that will impact priority mail services is the DIM weighting change that will take effect on a later date.

DIM Weighting Change

Dimensional weight pricing is facing drastic changes as the divisor is moving from 194 to 166 and will be extended from zones 5 through 9 to all zones on June 23rd, 2019.
DIM weight doesn’t take into account the actual physical weight of a package but the size of the package. This can affect large but light-weight packages. By lowering the divisor means there will be a higher fee for larger sized packages.
To calculate your package’s DIM weight you multiply (length x width x height) and then divide the result by 166 and round up.

Find out more information about the USPS rate change at Pitney Bowes Rate Change Central.