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# Pro Tips: Commercial Pricing, Volume Discounts, and Returns

Jarrett Streebin

February 11, 2014

We’ve since reduced our pricing to offer CPP and Cubic on all EasyPost. Please disregard the volume limits mentioned below. Contact [support@easypost.com](mailto:support@easypost.com?subject=CPP%20and%20Cubic) if you have questions. Updated on 3/9/15.

We’ve just released EasyPost Pro Tips, a compilation of our best tips for saving money on shipping. If you’re not yet an EasyPost user, [sign up for a free account](/content/signup/index.html) to simplify your shipping process.

Our first few tips save you money with volume discounts. If you’re on track to ship more than 5,000 packages this year, [get in touch](/content/talk-to-easypost/index.html) and we’ll make sure you’re getting the volume discounts you’re eligible for.

### Volume Discount Tips

Our first tip relates to Commercial Plus Pricing (CPP) for First Class. CPP is a bulk discount program the Postal Service offers to customers sending more than 5,000 First Class packages per year. There are additional CPP discounts for most USPS services listed on our [USPS Rate Chart](/content/usps-rate-chart/index.html) page.

Even if you don’t qualify for Commercial Plus Pricing, you’re still eligible for Commercial Base Pricing (CBP), the standard pricing for online retail. Simply by buying such postage online you’ll save between 5-63% of what you’d pay retail at the Post Office. Learn more at our Pro Tips page on [USPS volume discounts.](/content/usps-volume-discounts/index.html)

### Packing and Classification Tips

We also created a page on [Cubic pricing](/content/cubic-pricing/index.html) for those customers shipping large quantities of small, heavy items. For anyone shipping more than 150,000 packages a year, Cubic pricing can be a big cost saver.

Fortunately, by using EasyPost you can get access to Cubic pricing without shipping 150,000 packages a year. [Reach out to us](/content/talk-to-easypost/index.html) to learn more.

If you’re shipping lighter packages, it’s worth looking at how you classify your packages. If most of your packages have one dimension that’s greater than 6-1/8 inches high OR 11-1/2 inches long OR 1/4 inch thick, and is no more than 12 X 15 X 3/4 (width/length/height, all in inches), switch to [Flats.](/content/docs/api#parcels/index.html) We’ve seen savings of 45% just from making this simple change. You can see the savings breakdown yourself on our [Flats Pro Tips](/content/usps-flats/index.html) page.

### Final Tips

EasyPost offers insurance on any package that goes through our system, and for only 1% of the declared volume of a package. Insurance is also easy to add via EasyPost, and can be done by adding 2 lines of code to a shipment purchase via our API. Check out our [docs on shipping insurance](/content/shipping-insurance/index.html).

Lastly, we pulled together tips on how to save money using USPS scan-based returns. With scan-based, you only pay for the return labels you use, though you must be sending more than 10,000 returns per year. Take a look on our [USPS returns](/content/usps-returns/index.html) page.

Can you think of other tips we should add? Just [drop us a line](mailto:support@easypost.com?Subject=Pro%20Tips%20Suggestion) and I’ll add it!