Parcels: Paying with PC Postage®

Online Postage—named PC Postage by the U.S. Postal Service®—enables one to download official Postal Service™ postage from the Internet and print it onto envelopes and labels.  It resembles postage stamps and meters in that it is prepaid.
 
Pros: PC Postage offers convenience for those who would like to print their postage and a shipping label, including some Extra Services, from the Internet.  For a fee, some PC Postage vendors offer additional services when you purchase postage from them online.  The smallest shippers can benefit from the Postal Service’s complimentary online service, Click-N-Ship®, to prepare labels for a limited number of mail classes and extra services (must still pay for postage).  Others who require support for additional mail classes, Extra Services, or more cost-effective private insurance, or a more robust shipping system will need to subscribe to a private vendor, usually paying a monthly fee.  Carrier pickup for PC Postage parcels is easily arranged.

Cons: Requires an Internet connection to ship—you cannot generate the appropriate payment and label if your Internet goes down.  Mistakes can be costly because of the time it takes to request a refund on printed postage that goes unused.  Because they are web-based, PC Postage systems are less secure than a local drive or in-house server—ask your PC Postage vendor what its privacy policy is with regard to yours and your customers’ information.  Higher volumes take longer to process because they are printing from the Internet, and they require frequent re-loading of credit card information for payment.
 
Some PC Postage vendors have trouble processing large imports and providing real-time access to your package database for sophisticated mailers.  Because you are required to submit packages with PC Postage on the date that they are processed, this postage payment method lacks the flexibility to prepare labels for shipments in advance and to change the date of mailing should a change be required due to production, inventory or other variables.  PC Postage is therefore recommended for small to mid-sized mailers, but not for any business that depends upon shipping as a critical business function or profit center. 

Window Book’s postal shipping software—Postal Package Partner™ (PPP)—supports shippers who would like a more robust front-end to their PC Postage system by interfacing to DAZzle®.  PPP facilitates package preparation and labeling, postal acceptance, postage management and parcel tracking.