The last shipments report marked the first time in (at least) the past five years that April shipments were up from March. May shipments are usually a mixed bag, but happily the mix was on the positive side this time, with shipments up from $7.35 to $7.43 billion. As we said last time, we know from our own mailboxes that direct mail looks to be up (and a recent Keypoint Intelligence article cited a recent survey that found that marketers “were increasing the use of print marketing because digital marketing alone does not always produce sufficient response rates,” which could account for some of it) and 2024 being an election year there were primaries in the spring, which always spurs direct mail. Year-to-date shipments for 2024 are at $36.23 billion, still a little off 2023’s $37.03 billion but closing in.

We usually see an increase in June (even in 2020!) so this may end up being a pretty good year for the industry.