Through the Internet, more and more budding entrepreneurs have started to establish their own online business. There are generally two types of businesses that are created online through the Internet. The former offers a wide range of services to potential clients. The other is the sale of different types of products to customers around the world. Unlike a typical mall or grocery store, these products must be mailed to the customer availing the product. That is why postal counters have become extremely important for anyone setting up a store over the Internet.

What is a postage meter?

A postage meter refers to a mailing system that allows online business owners to directly print the postage paid on a label that they can attach to the package to be delivered. Postal meters have the ability to calculate the exact amount of postage the sender of the package or mail should pay based on weight. Postage is also calculated as to whether this should be sent by regular mail or by express mail.

Advantages of Postage Meters

The growing popularity of postal counters is mainly due to the many benefits that their users have experienced. Here are just a few of them:

convenient shipping. Postage meters would allow you to print and pay the postage on your package right from your home office. This would mean fewer trips to the local post office and waiting in line for the products your customers bought.

Handle all types of mail. Postage meters have the ability to not only print labels for all packages. You can also print postage directly on envelopes if you are sending large volumes of mail. You can also specify the handling of these mails, whether it be bulk mail, first class mail, or even express mail.

Exact amount all the time. There is no need to worry about paying too much or too little for postage. Postage meters come with a scale that allows you to print the correct amount for the package based on size and weight.

Disadvantages of Postage Meters

Although it is unquestionable that postage meters provide a number of benefits to their users, there are a number of different disadvantages that users should face. Here are just a few of them.

Manual updates for postal increase. From time to time, the United States Postal Service increases the amount of postage due on a package. Unfortunately, postal counters do not update automatically. The only way to get this updated is to contact the postal meter tenant to have it done manually.

Lease Rates. Postal meters cannot be purchased as part of government restrictions. Instead, they are leased for long-term use by private companies. While postal meters save you money in terms of providing accurate postal rates for each printed label, you’ll need to pay the appropriate leasing fees to use this.

Troubleshooting done by representatives only. Government regulations require that only authorized postal meter lessees can fix the common problems you are sure to face when using this. This does not provide an immediate resolution on the part of the user of the postage meter. While they waited for a representative to fix the problem, they would have no choice but to go back to the traditional way of shipping packages by going to the local post office for this.