If you’ve been around for any length of time you know that the US Postal Service has made several changes in the way we address our mail over the years. These changes were set up to accommodate a constantly growing and changing population.

Even though we have become more technologically advanced in the last few decades and more of our business is taken care of in the digital world there is still a need for the old postal service.

The term ZIP is an acronym for the Zone Improvement Plan of the Postal Service. The first zoning system by the postal service was implemented in 1943 after thousands of postal workers enlisted to serve during World War II.

The history behind US Postal ZIP codes is something that can have meaning to all of us on a more personal level. Anyone who has lived in the last half of the 20th century is familiar with the ZIP code but most probably not about its unique history.

There are several ways to look up the exact ZIP+4 codes when you need them. The easiest and most practical way is to use the Internet. Simply go to USPS’s website and find the ZIP Code Look-Up page.

That old system worked for more than twenty years but as the nation grew there needed to be an adjustment to the mail delivery system. This is where the zip code +4 comes in. The new expanded zip code tacked on an extra two digits to identify a specific area or group of apartments or offices and the last two digits designated a delivery segment like at floor in a building, the side of the street, or a specific department in a corporation.

If you’re looking to locate a zip code, aside from the USPS website look-up page, there are several other sites that can provide you with them.

With a free ZIP code search, you can determine the exact radius of people that you can offer services and products to based on costs and profits. By compiling a list of the area codes that are accessible to you, you can even start sending out mail to those possible customers, or email correspondence designed to make them more inclined to buy.

There are a number of reasons why you might choose to use a postal ZIP code list as part of running your online business. These useful resources provide you with an insight into the span of customers that you can reasonably reach from your office or manufacturing plant, without over-spending your budget when it comes to postage and packaging.

In general, most of us know the basic details of a ZIP code. These are the codes that you are asked to enter on websites when you’re determining exactly how much you might need to pay for shipping, or whether a particular person delivers to your area. The US Postal ZIP Codes that we use today follow the same format that was originally introduced in 1963 – a number that made up of five digits.