Can Printing Postage Online Help Your Business
What online postage Can Do For Your Business
When online postage first became available in August of 1999, it was in the form of “information based indicia” which quickly became known as IBI. IBI was the certified creation of the US Postal Service, and was available for printing from personal computers onto either on meter labels or envelopes.
The Postal Service, somewhat surprisingly for a government operation, seemed to have tapped into the possibilities which personal computers brought to the small or home business arena, and saw an opportunity. In the ensuing nine years, hundreds of thousands of individuals and businesses have abandoned those trips to the local post office and chosen to print postage online. Today the original offering, IBI, has been joined by many different postage products from several vendors.
If you are just setting up a small or home business and wondering what you would gain by using online postage (other than not having to moisten all those stamps or to struggle with peeling the self-adhesive ones from their backing in one piece), take a few minutes to lean how deciding to buy stamps with your personal computer can benefit you.
You don’t need to be a technological wizard when it comes to printing postage; and you will not have to install any special hardware on your PC. You will, however, need software which you can either install via a CD-Rom or download from the Internet. The software is available for both Windows and Mac systems; you’ll also need either an inkjet or laser printer. You may also have to pay a monthly subscription fee to the online stamp vending site of your choice.
The online postage software will let you print postage stamps either onto envelopes or labels, and your home printers should be able to handle either with ease. You must use the labels immediately, and only on the parcels for which they were printed. But you can also now print actual stamps onto special peel-off sheets available from your vendor.
When you set up an account with an online postage vendor, you’ll deposit money and the each time you print postage its value will be deducted from that account. The funds in your account will be in addition to your monthly subscription fee. The US Postal Service has placed a $500 cap on the amount you may have in your account at any time.
How will you benefit by deciding to buy stamps and postage online?
* First, you will eliminate those all-too-inconvenient runs to the Post Office, which can be especially cumbersome if you have a large number of items to weigh and mail. If you’ve been using a postal meter, you won’t have to worry abut getting it reset. And if your monthly postage meter costs exceed $50, you’ll save money by using online postage.
* You should carefully evaluate the pricing plans available for purchasing online postage. The US Postal Service has approved online postage through its own Click-n-Ship program; through EBay; and through the online vendors Stamps.com, Endicia, and Pitney Bowe’s Shipstream Manager.
Their pricing plans very according to the number of features each offers, so a careful review of each will give you an idea which service is best suited to your business needs. But keep n mind that no matter which USPS approved vendor you choose, you may qualify for discounts of up to 10% over regular postage prices for the postage you buy online.
* If you are concerned either about the quality of online postage products or about the security involved in purchasing them, all the products are subject to US Postal Service approval, and the entire vendor sites have the state-of-the-art security measures you expect from any online marketing site.
* Finally, your ability to buy stamps online comes with one perk which the Postal Service has yet to offer (and probably never will!) It’s around-the–clock customer service! It would not be surprising for you to have questions when you first begin printing your postage, and if you do, telephone help will be available from your vendor’s customer service people at hours when the local Post Office is locked up tight.
Are there disadvantages to using online postage?
Yes, but they lie not in the quality of the postage itself but in the technology required to produce it. If your computer crashes, or your ISP has connection difficulties, you’ll be left without access to your postage account. And if your vendor’s website has difficulties, you may end up waiting far longer to log in than you would have to wait in line to buy stamps the traditional way. Using online postage should probably be left to those with high-speed Internet connections.
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