COSTS TO BUSINESSES

• There were over 6.1 billion individual pieces of undeliverable as addressed mail in the United States as of 2017, down from more than 6.8 billion in 2016.
• According to a recent publishing, 4.56% of outbound volume was unreceived and undeliverable.
• The cost to the United States Postal Service (USPS) to process all that undeliverable mail was approximately $1.3 billion. 
• The cost to US businesses was estimated at $20 billion. 
•  Three industry trends that are responsible for the high amount of undeliverable mail in the United States include continued low hanging fruit issues, more complex addressing issues, and increased government regulation with address quality.
• A piece of undeliverable may cost a business up to $25 per piece "in ancillary costs related to correcting mistakes and re-sending mail."

BREAKDOWN OF COSTS OF UAA MAIL

• UAA mail costs operations approximately $5.00 per call to an in-bound call center relating to the missing mail.
• Reoccurring statements sent to incorrect addressed cost between $.50 and $1.00 per statement. 
• Mail capture costs $10-$15 per hour for handing UAA mail.
• Address research costs $.50-$1.00 per piece of UAA mail.
• Data management for UAA mail costs between $10-$16 an hour. 

RESEARCH STRATEGY

MAIL LOSS STATISTICS FOR INDIVIDUALS AND BUSINESSES: REASONS

• About 40% of the residents (individuals) of the United States who relocate do not update the relevant agencies with a forwarding address and this is responsible for many undeliverable mails.
• According to the European E-commerce News web report of 2018, four out of every five retailers revealed that customers who mistype their (supply wrong) addresses are the most significant cause of failed parcel deliveries.
• Failed delivery rate of business parcels mailed to customers in the United States is 4.7%.
• The failed delivery rate of business parcels sent to customers in the United Kingdom is 5.6%.
• Failed delivery rate of business parcels mailed to customers in Germany is 4.6%.
• The average of failed deliveries in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany is 5%.
• Four out of every five retailers representing about 80% of retailers in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany revealed that customers often do not realize that most failed business mail (parcel) deliveries are due to wrongly typed addresses by consumers.
• A 2017 report by Compu-Mail reveals that purchased lists of business enterprises have a margin of error often as high as 20-30% because people move, change jobs or get married/divorced.
• The insurance or finance sector of the United States relies heavily on deadlines and operators within the industry are legally required to send "only to the last known address," not minding the most recent, even in situations where USPS already has an updated address and this accounts for several undeliverable as addressed (UAA) mails in the sector.
• One of the reasons for undeliverable mails/parcels is that the mail database in some emerging economies, in several regions of the globe like LATAM, APAC and the MEA has low accuracy. This low accuracy of mail databases leads to the ineffectiveness of several direct mail campaigns of businesses organizations.
• Businesses and individuals in the United States with a change of address accounted for 107,402 specific undeliverable as addressed mails out of a total of 600,592 UAA mails. While a total of 212,712 undeliverable as addressed mails were due to issues such as forwarding order challenges for moved residents. A total of 320,114 UAA were recorded in April 2019 across the United States due to outdated addresses for both individual mail and business mail.

LOSSES PER INDUSTRY

• A recent survey within the e-commerce sector among 300 retailers and 2,000 online shoppers residing in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States revealed that 5% of all online orders mailed to customers do not make it successfully to the customer on the first attempt for no fault of the retailer.
• While it seems that retailers are not collecting accurate customer address data, only 9% of consumers agree that consumers are supplying wrong addresses. However, four out of every five retailers (80%) revealed that customers often do not realize most failed business mail (parcel) deliveries are due to wrongly typed addresses by consumers.
• The cost of failed order for the e-commerce industry for all studied regions according to the European E-commerce News web report is $17.55 per failed order on the average.
• The cost of a failed order for the e-commerce industry for by country according to the European E-commerce News web report is $16.58 per failed order in the United States, $14.33 per failed order in the United Kingdom, and $14.87 per failed order in Germany.
• In 2015, returned undelivered had a total cost of $1.5 billion for the United States credit card companies.
• Although the operational cost of every undelivered mail piece is about $3, United States companies often spend as high as $50 per undeliverable item.
• When indirect and direct expenses are monitored, the total cost for each undeliverable mail item for companies in the United States soars $50.8. 
• A 2016 report reveals that annually, mailers in the United States spend about $20 billion for undeliverable as addressed (UAA) mails, and the direct cost to the USPS is $789 million per year.

METHODOLOGY

CALCULATION