E-commerce Spend Grows to $331.6 billion, as Consumers Trade Down to Cheaper Goods Online

Financial and Business Highlights •Record gross revenue was $288.4 million in the third quarter, an increase of 3% compared with $280.0 million in the third quarter of 2016. Year-to-date gross revenue was $835.3 million, a 2% increase compared with $820.3 million in the prior period. •Record gross profit (net revenue) was $72.5 million, or 25.1% of gross revenue in the third quarter, a 7% increase compared to $67.8 million, or 24.2% of gross revenue, in the same period of last year. Year-to-date gross profit (net revenue) was $207.0 million, or 24.8% of gross revenue, an increase of 6% compared to the prior-year period. •Net income was $7.5 million or $0.14 per diluted share in the third quarter, compared to net income of $4.3 million or $0.08 per share in the third quarter of 2016. Year-to-date net income was $17.5 million or $0.32 per diluted share, compared to net income (loss) of $(0.7) million or $(0.01) per diluted share in the same period of 2016. Click Read More below for additional information.

The United States Postal Service reported new service delivery performance metrics for the first week of the fiscal second quarter showing service performance holding steady for First-Class Mail, Marketing Mail and Periodicals. Consistent with the rest of the shipping industry, the organization experienced some minor delays in both ground and air transportation during the week of January 1-7. The Postal Service continues to address impacts to last mile delivery due to availability challenges due to COVID-19 cases and inclement weather events including winter storms on the East Coast, Midwest and West Coast. Second quarter-to-date service performance scores covering the period Jan.1 through Jan. 7 included: *First-Class Mail: 90 percent of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of .37 percentage points from the first quarter. *Marketing Mail: 91.7 percent of Marketing Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a slight decrease of .46 percentage points from the first quarter. Periodicals: 81.1 percent of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, with an improvement of .37 percentage points from the first quarter.

The Commission released its Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Justification submitted earlier to the Postal Service Board of Governors in accordance with Title 39, United States Code, Section 205. Last week, the Commission submitted a revised budget request of $22.613 million for FY 2024 to the Postal Service Governors. The Commission submitted this revised request in response to correspondence and discussions with the Governors regarding the initial budget request of $23.399 million. The initial request sought to fund increases to fixed costs, including inflationary adjustments to wages and benefits, lease payments, and the addition of 5 full-time equivalent employees. The revised request only covers increases to the Commission’s fixed costs for FY 2024 and does not fund increased capacity in FY 2024.