The internet is a gift to entrepreneurs, empowering them to launch online businesses. An e-commerce website makes it simpler for businesses to sell products while a business website allows businesses to promote their services.Online or not every business has official mailings and package shipments to deal with on a daily basis. In fact, for an e-commerce store, reputation rides on thepace and excellence of distribution. If these businesses obtain postage meters, also called postage machines, they can save both time and money in this critical job.
With postage meters, businesses can directly stampcorrect postage onto package labels and letterswithout the need to go to post offices to get consignments weighed, stamped and franked. They can compute theaccurate postage based on weight, receiver’s location, and kind ofmail. Not only that, you can also monitor the amount of money spent on postage.Productivity also gets a boost as the time saved is utilized in more money-making tasks that will grow the business.
Advantages of postage meter for a small business
They are very helpful to small businesses with already stretched budgets, not to mention personnelto make frequent trips to the post office. A number of advantages of postage meters are:
- Easy stamping: Postage machines offer the comfort of printing and paying postage without leaving the office. No long queues at the post office to get shipments weighed and printed. All you need to do is make one trip to drop the consignments or you can arrange to have them collected from your workplace.
- Simple management of all types of mails: Postage machines can take care of most type of mails – Parcel Post, Priority, Domestic First-Class, Express, International parcels, International First-Class etc. As it is effortless to print directly on envelopes, mass mails can be weighed and stamped swiftly and correctly.
- Cost savings: Postage meters always print packages with accuratepostage unlike the occasional case at post offices where precise postage is not available all the time or when you weigh the package on a scale and estimate the postage from a look up table.Packages are weighed on a scale on the meter and postage iscomputed on that basis along with the type of mail and its destination.
Disadvantages of a postage meter for a small business
Though postage meters offer several benefits, youalso have a few challenges to deal with, such as:
- Leasing cost:Use of postal meters,rates, and distribution is administered by the country’s postal service. They cannot bepurchased and have to be taken on lease for specific period. Leasing fee vary from $20 to $500 per month based on the model selected.
- Change in postage charges: Postage rates can be altered by the postal service and alterations need to be made in the postage meter also. While it is possible to update postage rates electronically in the new digital meters,lower cost models need to be updated manually by the leaser.
- Government restrictions on repair: The government postal authority does not allow troubleshooting and repair of postage meters by any person except theendorsed leaser. This leads to unwarranted delays andbusiness owners have to fall back on theconventional system of using regular postage stamps and mailing at the post office till the machine becomes functional again.
The ease of use, drop in operational costs, and time savings from the use of postage meters greatly outweigh their disadvantages. Businesses can gain from the professionalism these machines bring to official mails and consignments. Business owners too can focus better on business expansion and to pursue new opportunities. Daljeet Sidhu is the author of this article.
