Zumbox.com is banking on the idea that people’s preference for all things digital will extend to mail delivery.
Zumbox, which launched last week in public beta form, positions itself as a paperless postal system that enables paper mail senders to send the same mail content to traditional physical street addresses – online – without using any paper or scanning.
To facilitate the service, a digital mailbox – a Zumbox – has been created for every street address in the US. A consumer can activate their Zumbox online by entering their address, and would then be mailed a PIN to verify that the address entered was correct.
“There is a digital disconnect when it comes to mail delivery,” said Glen Ward, president of Zumbox, and former North American CEO of Virgin Entertainment Group.
In addition to things like bills and financial statements, catalogs also can be sent digitally through Zumbox, and can be browsed digitally, Ward said.
The company has agreements with some “major retailers, department stores and government entities” who have agreed to send mail digitally through Zumbox to their customers that sign up for it, said Ward, although he declined to cite names, saying an announcement would be made shortly.
Zumbox is free for all qualified businesses, governments, nonprofits and other organizations sending standard regular mail, with the exception of advertisers and marketers.
Zumbox will derive revenues from charging advertisers and marketers that utilize the service, Ward said.
Further, he said it will have benefits for direct marketers by improving efficiency of direct response marketing and enabling real-time campaign measurement through analytics tools.
“These are not available in traditional direct mail,” he said.
Zumbox is in compliance with PCI, BITS and HIPAA security regulations, Ward said.
