My name is Lisa Arcari and I’m the domestic package pricing director at USPS headquarters in Washington, DC.
I set the published prices for our competitive products, including USPS Ground Advantage, Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express and Parcel Select.
I started in revenue and volume reporting in 2010 and then I moved to mail entry and payment technology before coming to my current position about four years ago.
My team works closely with the product management group, which decides what features a product should have, and the sales team, which develops the strategies to bring the products to market. My team advises them on pricing by looking at the product’s features, such as included insurance. We consider how our product stacks up against our competitors’ when we are setting the price. We try to set prices that are competitive, but still above cost.
USPS Ground Advantage has had a great reception. People like the product. It’s economical and we can price it competitively. It also has helped customers understand our product line a little better: We have a ground option, and then Priority Mail is a little faster, and Priority Mail Express is a lot faster.
My challenge is to keep up with the market and trends. We see national carriers and regional competitors popping up. There are also services such as Uber and DoorDash that offer new ways to deliver stuff to you. It’s a changing landscape.
I must stay aware of pricing as well as perceptions of our service. Being reliable is invaluable to how we price because you can’t price poor service low enough. The better value we have, the better competitive position we have.
