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Innovative ways women entrepreneurs use USPS for their businesses
Women entrepreneurs who own small businesses need to find effective ways to deliver goods to customers. Customer relations suffer if they can’t rely on services to deliver on time and without damage. Shipments need to arrive on time or customers will simply move on and use competitors.
Shipping products can be complex, especially for small business owners. They have to consider factors such as costs, speed, and reliability. Package safety is another factor. Many women entrepreneurs with small businesses use the United States Postal Service (USPS) for their shipping needs. Using the USPS is a small business-friendly and affordable option.
Secure shipping practices
Secure shipping practices are essential for women entrepreneurs. Part of ensuring safe and secure shipping practices is to communicate with customers. This helps to raise their awareness about scams and can stop them from falling prey to hackers.
A common scam is a United States Postal Service (USPS) text scam. A consumer may receive an urgent text message that appears to come from USPS about an attempted delivery. They need to learn about ways to protect themselves against a USPS text scam. They might make the mistake of clicking a link to update an address, even if they aren’t expecting a package. When they follow the link, they are required to input sensitive information, such as a personal ID number, to identify them as the rightful owner. Hackers use this scam to access information they can use for financial gain or fraud.
Why use USPS?
Women entrepreneurs are important to the Postal Service. It has a goal of establishing and maintaining a strong supplier base that reflects the diversity of the American supplier community. The Postal Service believes that women entrepreneurs are able to offer competitive pricing, innovations, etc. and they can assist them to do so. It has developed an unparalleled network to enable it to deliver mail across America. It’s hard to compete with its infrastructure and availability.
- The USPS delivers to 167 million addresses and over 12.7 million businesses.
- Small businesses can use USPS for shipping supplies, labels, and packaging materials. Click-N-Ship makes it possible to order postage and print shipping labels online.
- It makes it easy to do small-volume or single-item shipping which is common for small businesses.
- Door-to-door tracking is available with real-time updates every time packages are scanned on their way to the final destination.
- Scheduled package pickups can save trips to the post office. Pickups take place based on availability but it is possible to pay a fee to request specific time slots.
- The USPS is fully insured and will compensate customers for losses. Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express packages have insurance of $50 when purchasing postage at the post office or on the USPS website. Note that some services don’t come with free insurance, such as First Class Package.
Technology to streamline shipping
Managing the shipping and fulfillment process isn’t always easy. For women entrepreneurs, efficiency is a key to success. Using technology can help to streamline shipping.
On the USPS web tools portal, small business owners can access USPS data and features free of charge. All they need to do is to register for a Web Tools User Account. Once they register they receive an email containing a User ID. This gives them access to APIs. These APIs can help them to:
- Schedule package pickups
- Track packages
- Calculate costs
- Verify addresses
- Generate accurate return labels
New APIs are available that offer more API customization, product offerings, and payment options.
Calculate shipping fees
Calculating shipping fees is probably one of the most complex aspects of shipping. Fees are based on various factors such as package weight and size, speed, shipping volume, and destination. Some services such as insurance and tracking come at an additional cost. Shipping materials also add to the costs. When handling shipping in-house, business owners must also account for the time and resources they use to prepare shipments.
Women entrepreneurs can use the APIs on the Web Tools portal to calculate prices. They can get an estimate of the shipping cost of an order by entering a Zip Code number. The API calculates the cost of shipping depending on what’s in their cart. When shipping internationally, it’s important to remember to include import or export fees.
Use flat shipping rates
Flat rate options are often the best shipping choice for women entrepreneurs with small businesses. It means they don’t have to worry about lower profit margins from one order to the next or price variations between ZIP codes. Whether they fit one or more items in a box, they still ship for the same price. When they know what the shipping rate is on every package, they can find ways to standardize savings.
USPS offers the widest variety of affordable options for flat-rate shipping services. Priority Mail Flat Rate products allow business owners to ship packages of less than 70 lbs to any state at the same price. This is ideal for shipping small items such as clothing, mugs, shoes, candles, etc.
Access cheap shipping rates
USPS offers cheaper rates to small businesses that use shipping software to access commercial pricing rates, and/or who partner with fulfillment providers. These fulfillment providers are able to get discounts due to their high shipment volumes.
Shipping is an industry where size plays an important role. If a package is as small as possible it’s a good way to keep shipping costs down. Using packaging that’s too large for items can result in being charged dimensional weight rather than actual weight. In other words, this is the amount of space a package takes up.
A small business owner may want to deliver a small box weighing about 2 lbs that contains a beauty product to a customer who lives in a different state. In this situation using a carrier like FedEx would be quick but costly. Using USPS is vastly cheaper although delivery time would be longer.
Verify an address
The total distance a package has to travel matters. It may go through several zones from its point of origin to its destination zone. Unfortunately, millions of consumers will enter an address incorrectly. A Verify an Address tool on the USPS Web tools site can cut down human error and ensure customers receive their products without any delays.
Make returns seamless
The return policies of businesses have a big influence on customers. If they aren’t user-friendly, it can deter them from using the business again. USPS has a wide range of return services. They offer convenience for customers and business owners. The USPS Returns Label API can generate accurate return labels with one click.
Do business internationally
Small businesses owned by women entrepreneurs can do business internationally when using USPS. The challenges of shipping internationally may seem daunting but USPS has various tools to facilitate it. It partners with the postal services of other countries to deliver shipments. This helps to keep the costs relatively affordable. USPS Priority International Mail for overseas shipments is one of the best options in terms of reliability and costs.
Global Shipping Software from USPS makes it easy to calculate prices and generate labels, customs forms, and manifests. It also offers information on export laws and insights on government agencies that can help businesses with international shipping.
Conclusion
For any small business that has to ship products to customers, choosing the right shipping company to work with is essential. The USPS leverages cutting-edge technology and tools to make shipping easier for women entrepreneurs with small businesses. It is small-business friendly and offers affordable pricing and reliability. There may be some sacrifices in terms of time delays and service standards but the cost savings can make up for these.
Author’s Bio
Andrew Caldwell writes from the core of his heart. This makes his blogs shine bright and helps him gain new followers. He knows the tricks of the trade and his ability to research deeply makes his blog worth sharing and liking. He’s currently doing a book that talks about women CEOs’ role in uplifting the tech sector.
Transdermal HRT best protects bone density in women with functional hypothalamic amenorrhoea, a condition that stops periods, a review of trials has found.
The meta-analysis pooled randomised clinical trials involving 692 participants and found transdermal hormone replacement therapy and teriparatide increased bone mineral density by between 2 and 13 per cent.
Functional hypothalamic amenorrhoea can follow anorexia or intense exercise. Bone mineral density measures bone strength and the amount of mineral in bone.
Around half of women with the condition have low bone mineral density, compared with about 1 per cent of healthy women, and their fracture risk is up to seven times higher.
The research was conducted by scientists at Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
Professor Alexander Comninos, senior author of the study and consultant endocrinologist at the trust, said: “Bone density is lost very rapidly in FHA and so addressing bone health early is very important to reduce the lifelong risk of fractures.
“Our study provides much needed comparisons of all the available treatments from all available studies.
“Clearly the best treatment is to restore normal menstrual cycles and therefore oestrogen levels through various psychological, nutritional or exercise interventions – but that is not always possible.
“The foundation for bone health is good calcium and vitamin D intake (through diet and/or supplements) but we have additional treatments that are more effective.”
When FHA is diagnosed, clinicians first try to restore periods through lifestyle measures, including psychological and dietary support, but these can fail. Guidelines then recommend giving oestrogen, though the best form was unclear.
The team reviewed all prior randomised trials comparing therapies, including oral and transdermal oestrogen, and also assessed teriparatide, a prescription bone-building drug used for severe osteoporosis.
They found no significant benefit for oral contraceptive pills or oral hormone therapy.
A recent UK audit reported that about a quarter of women with anorexia-related FHA are prescribed the oral contraceptive pill for bone loss; the study suggests using transdermal therapy instead.
Comninos said: “Our goal is simple: to help women receive the right treatment sooner and to protect their bone health in the long-term.
“We hope this study provides clinicians with better evidence to choose transdermal oestrogen when prescribing oestrogen and so inform future practice guidelines.
“Right now, millions of women with FHA may not be receiving the best treatments for their bone health.”
An AI tool cut interval breast cancers by 12 per cent in a Swedish screening trial of more than 105,000 women.
The study also found 27 per cent fewer aggressive breast cancers detected at screening when AI was used.
Interval cancers are cancers found between routine screening appointments because they were missed at the original scan. They are often more dangerous and linked to higher death rates than cancers found at screening.
The MASAI trial is described as the first large randomised study to test whether AI can improve mammography screening, which uses low-dose X-rays to examine breast tissue for signs of cancer.
The AI tool, called Transpara Detection and developed by ScreenPoint Medical, supported radiologists in analysing mammography images.
Earlier results from the same trial showed that Transpara Detection increased cancers found by 29 per cent and reduced radiologist workload by 44 per cent compared with standard double-reading, where two radiologists independently review each scan.
The latest findings indicate higher accuracy with AI support. Sensitivity, the ability to detect cancer, was 6.7 percentage points higher in the AI group while specificity, the ability to rule out healthy cases, was maintained. Results were similar across age groups and breast density levels.
Women screened with AI had 16 per cent fewer invasive interval cancers and 21 per cent fewer large interval cancers than those in the standard screening group.
The system also helps doctors assess risk more precisely by subdividing suspicious findings into BI-RADS 4 categories A, B and C. BI-RADS (Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System) is a standardised scale that guides whether a patient needs closer monitoring, further tests or treatment.
Ageing anxiety may accelerate biological ageing in women, with fears about worsening health linked to faster epigenetic ageing, according to new research.
The study found that greater anxiety about growing old was associated with accelerated epigenetic ageing, as measured by the DunedinPACE clock, based on biological markers in blood samples.
Epigenetic changes are shifts in how genes are switched on or off without altering DNA itself, which can influence how the body ages and functions.
“Our research suggests that subjective experiences may be driving objective measures of ageing,” said Mariana Rodrigues, a PhD student and the first author of the study.
“Ageing-related anxiety is not merely a psychological concern, but may leave a mark on the body with real health consequences.”
Researchers analysed data from 726 women in the Midlife in the US study.
Participants were asked how much they worried about becoming less attractive with age, having more health issues and being too old to have children.
Blood samples were used to assess ageing with two epigenetic clocks: DunedinPACE, which estimates the pace of biological ageing, and GrimAge2, which estimates cumulative biological damage.
The study was conducted by researchers at NYU School of Global Public Health.
Worrying about declining health showed the strongest links with epigenetic ageing, while anxiety about attractiveness and fertility was not significantly associated with biological markers.
The authors suggest health worries are more common and persist over time, whereas concerns about appearance and reproduction may fade with age.
“Women in midlife may also be multiple in roles, including caring for their ageing parents,” Rodrigues said.
“As they see older family members grow older and become sick, they may worry about whether the same thing will happen to them.”
The authors caution that the study offers a snapshot in time and other factors may influence these biological changes.
When analyses were adjusted for health behaviours such as smoking and alcohol use, the link between ageing anxiety and epigenetic ageing decreased and was no longer significant.
“Our research identifies ageing anxiety as a measurable and modifiable psychological determinant that seems to be shaping ageing biology,” said Adolfo Cuevas, associate professor of social and behavioural sciences and the study’s senior author.
They call for more research to clarify how this anxiety influences ageing over time, to guide support for those experiencing ageing anxiety.
“Ageing is a universal experience.” Rodrigues said.
“We need to start a discourse about how we as a society, through our norms, structural factors and interpersonal relationships, address the challenges of ageing.”
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