Knowledge Base

If you use United States Postal Service for shipping, do you know you can save as much as 50% by using USPS Commercial Base Pricing? Commercial Base Pricing (CBP) is a discounted rate offered by U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to their customers who buy and print shipping labels online such as via the USPS Click-N-Ship online service. With CBP, there is no minimum shipping volume. Any business or indvidual is eligible. While CBP is not compatible with all USPS delivery services such as letter mail or Retail Ground (formerly known as Standard Post), it's available with:

• First Class Package Service
• Priority Mail
• Priority Mail Express
• First Class Package International Service
• Priority Mail International
• Priority Mail Express International
• Global Express Guaranteed

To use the USPS Click-N-Ship online service to print shipping labels, all you need is to sign up for a USPS account at their website. It's really simple.

Comparison of Retail and Commercial Base Rates

To give you an idea of how much you can save with CBP, the following tables compare the prices between normal retail rates and CBP rates. You can compare the differences between CBP and regular retail rates for your typical shipments by visiting the USPS Business Price Calculator.

The first table shows the postage for a 13 ounce small package from west coast to east coast.

The second table shows the rates for a 18" x 18" x 14" package weighing 3 lbs for the same pair of addresses as previous example. Because the package maximum length exceeds 12", USPS uses dimensional weight for Priority Mail rates calculation.

As you can see, the savings provided by CBP can be substantial. If you are already a USPS customer, you should consider using CBP to lower shipping costs. To help you with this, the SolvingMaze Advanced Shipping Calculator supports USPS Commercial Base Pricing so that you may take advantage of CBP in your shopping cart system such as Magento and start saving money on shipping. If you prefer to integrate the calculator to your own shopping cart, ERP or WMS application yourself, you can also use our Pack and Quote API. In addition to CBP, the calculator supports USPS Priority and Regional Flat Rate shipping so combined with CBP, you can lower shipping costs even further.

For more ideas on how you can save shipping and streamline your order fulfillment process, check out our other articles.