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During the holiday season last year, Pendery's World of Chilies & Spices more than doubled their typical shipping orders from their average-peak of 35 boxes per day. As a result, the owners of the oldest family- owned business in Fort Worth, Texas found themselves searching for their own holiday gift: a cost-effective Delivery Confirmation solution to meet the needs of their rapidly expanding retail shipping business. So Clint Haggerty, General Manager (and fifth generation Pendery family member), began to research the available options.

Since the introduction of catalog business in 1987 and online purchasing capabilities last year, retail shipping has quickly outpaced Pendery's wholesale shipping and retail store operations. This rapid growth in retail shipments has required the 131-year-old company to take a new look at the way they ship their low-weight orders.

"We have been transitioning from wholesale institutional customers, such as restaurants with 240-pound drops, to retail shipments as small as a quarter-pound," explains Clint. "After reviewing several shipping alternatives, we selected Priority Mail® to handle our low-weight packages because the Postal Service offers the most competitive pricing, and they do a good job on delivery."

"The remaining challenge was finding the most cost-effective way to take advantage of Priority Mail®'s Delivery Confirmation Service. Enter Pitney Bowes.

"Our Pitney Bowes representative explained how the Delivery Confirmation feature is built into their new DM Series™ Mailing Systems," says Clint. "These systems enable us to process our low-weight Priority Mail shipments right from our facility without having to go to the post office. We can then track the delivery of these shipments online, and the real kicker is that the Postal Service charges us $0.40 less per piece for using electronic, Delivery Confirmation. That's when I knew that the DM Series™ Mailing System was exactly what we wanted."

"At first, we were concerned that the process would require a lot of data entry, but boy were we wrong. All you have to do is enter the tracking number, the ZIP Code, the postage amount and you're done. Then, within 24 hours, you can check the status of packages by going to either the Pitney Bowes or the U.S. Postal Service website, enter the tracking number, and the delivery status is displayed."

Clint adds that the most important reason to use Delivery Confirmation is customer service. "Delivery Confirmation is the front line of customer service. It's whether or not your products get to the right place, which is critical to our operations," he says. "If customers call to report they did not receive their package and you don't have Delivery Confirmation, what can you say? You just have to reship these orders."

In fact, the Delivery Confirmation feature has already been put to the test for tracking and tracing, scoring high marks for its detective work in minimizing lost packages. "When we trace packages, we often find out that the package either went to a different person, or to a P.O. Box where the post office is holding it for pick-up," says Clint. "Also with apartments that have restricted entry, we often find out that the package is sitting at the apartment office."

Clint adds, "You have to keep up with changes in technology, and Pitney Bowes did us a great service by introducing their new, innovative system. We're more productive than ever before, we've dramatically reduced lost shipments, we've virtually eliminated trips to the post office, and we're saving on postage. As a result, we expect to save over $5,000 this year, and we also expect to have an even better holiday season. A pretty good return for the modest investment we made to acquire our DM Series™ Mailing System."

If you would like to obtain a catalog from Pendery's World of Chiles and Spices call 1-800-533-1870 or visit www.penderys.com