• Direct Marketing News, Monday, January 10, 2011 10:30 AM

The U.S. Postal Service, which is cutting its officer lists by 16% this year, will try selling gift cards at 2,000 post office locations to try to get people to use the service to send gifts.

The USPS said, in a filing with the Postal Regulatory Commission, that the program "provides an opportunity for the Postal service to increase customer convenience while enhancing revenue and encouraging the use of the mail for gifting purposes."

The postal service lost $173 million in the first two months of its 2011. It lost $8.5 billion in fiscal 2010, which ended Sept. 30.

The program, which is supposed to start in May, will put the cards in outlets that also sell greeting cards and expand to 3,000 retail locations in October to catch holiday sales. The idea, per USPS is to exploit cross-selling opportunities between the gift cards and greeting cards.

Read the whole story at Direct Marketing News »