The US Postal Service plans to redesign its direct mail Web site to make it more relevant to small business owners. According to research by ComScore, 84% of the visitors to the direct mail site are businesses, and 59% of those visitors are small businesses with 10 or fewer employees, said Carlton Shufflebarger, manager of direct mail for the USPS, at a workshop at the National Postal Forum in Anaheim, CA, today.

The USPS is seeking comments on its proposal for new marking requirements for Parcel Select mail, according to a Federal Register notice published today. Feedback is due to the USPS by June 20.

MeritDirect has been named list manager of two Pitney Bowes lists, Pitney Bowes Systems Meters and Pitney Bowes 50+ Employee Size. Pitney Bowes customers include medical offices, legal, real estate, finance, insurance and CPAs, architects, engineers, contractors and business services.

The US Postal Service raises rates today for its mailing services, for the first time under new standards established follow­ing the passage of the Postal Account­ability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) in December 2006.

Despite efforts by the US Postal Service as well as some direct mail service companies such as Pitney Bowes, news about the Intelligent Mail barcode (IMB) may not be reaching the majority of mailers. The IMB, developed by the USPS to encode routing and tracking information on mail, will eventually replace Postnet barcodes, which only contain the routing code.

On May 2, Amazon filed a complaint in New York Supreme Court objecting to the state law approved by Gov. David A. Paterson last week, which requires out-of-state online retailers to collect taxes on everything sold in the state if it has agents or affiliates in New York. Amazon, which has thousands of affiliates with New York addresses, is contesting the constitutionality of the law.

Canada Post Corporation and FedEx Canada have teamed up to develop Priority Worldwide, a new international express service. The service will be delivered in Canada through Canada Post's retail and commercial networks, and worldwide through the FedEx international delivery network, beginning in Fall 2008.

The US Postal Service has published its changes to Shipping Service standards in the Federal Register. They will take effect May 12. Express Mail prices will be zone-based prices, taking into account weight and distance. Priority Mail retail prices are increasing by 6%, while Parcel Select prices are increasing by 5.7% on average.

Office supply superstores are fast becoming big players in the printing business. Chantal Todé reports on this trend.

Automated fulfillment is used by multichannel retailers to varying degrees, but some marketers question how much mechanism to add to an order and shipment process.