Neiman Marcus Loses its First-Ever Chief Information Security Officer

Quarter-to-date service performance data for July 1 through Sept. 17 included: *First-Class Mail: Delivered 88.3 percent of First-Class Mail on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 0.8 percentage point from the third quarter. *Marketing Mail: Delivered 92.5 percent of Marketing Mail on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 1.5 percentage points from the third quarter. *Periodicals: Delivered 82.2 percent of Periodicals on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 3 percentage points from the third quarter. Service performance in recent weeks has been affected in markets impacted by Hurricane Ida and ongoing employee availability challenges posed by COVID-19. Delivering for America, the Postal Service’s 10-year plan for financial sustainability and service excellence, seeks to meet or exceed its goal of 95 percent on-time service performance for all mail and shipping product delivery based on standards as all elements of the plan are implemented. The Postal Service continued preparations for the higher delivery demands of the 2021 holiday peak season this week. Ongoing efforts have included a national drive to hire delivery and plant personnel that is expected to result in an additional 40,000 seasonal hires by year-end, the leasing of 7.5 million square feet of additional space across more than 40 multiyear annexes where we are experiencing year-round space constraints due to parcel growth, and the installation of new processing equipment to accommodate higher volumes reflecting customers’ delivery needs. Since April, the Postal Service has installed 65 of 112 new package sorting machines, reflecting the Delivering for America plan’s $40 billion of planned investment over ten years. Additionally, more than 50 package systems capable of sorting large packages are expected to be deployed prior to December. 4.5 million additional packages can be sorted each day utilizing newly deployed package sortation equipment.

1. The rate increase. There is no way to get around it or ignore it — perhaps the single biggest topic of conversation at this years’ event was the postal rate increases. 2. Mail is becoming a luxury item. On the heels of the rate changes, many are noting that brands are beginning to see the mail component of their marketing campaigns as more of a luxury line item. 3. Design is critical. While certainly not a new phenomenon, the design of the mail piece is only becoming more critical. 4. Postal discounts are more critical than ever before. Speaking of postal discounts, there are a lot of programs out there that brands and mailers could — and should — be taking advantage of, and those discounts are shifting and changing. 5. Direct mail works. Direct mail is still the single marketing channel that gets the most return on investment of every platform — multiple sessions noted that ROI for direct mail sits at around 40%, which is significantly higher than any other channel.

FY24 first quarter service performance scores covering October 1 through November 24, included: *First-Class Mail: 87.5 percent of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a decrease of 3.6 percentage points from the fiscal fourth quarter. *Marketing Mail: 94.2 percent of Marketing Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a decrease of 1.1 percentage points from the fiscal fourth quarter. *Periodicals: 84.2 percent of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a decrease of 1.8 percentage points from the fiscal fourth quarter.