Pitney Bowes to Introduce Digital Mail Delivery Service

Back in 2009 we wrote about Zumbox, which allows you to receive your mail online instead of on paper: Zumbox Offers Virtual Postal Service. Now Pitney Bowes has introduced a competitive offering called "Volly," a secure, spam-free digital delivery service that allows businesses to:

• Coordinate physical and digital mail in one cloud-based application
•  Send bills, direct mail, coupons, catalogs and more
• Reach customers from any computer or web-enabled device
• Lower mail production and operating costs 

Customers who opt in will be able to receive, manage and view all of these mailings from a single application, and will be able to electronically pay their bills, as well.

Pitney Bowes has a relationship with 74% of the country's high-volume mailers, many of whom they expect to sign up to use the service, and is enlisting additional mailers as well. The official consumer sign-up will begin later this year. There will be no charge for the Volly secure digital delivery service, which will be funded by retailers/service providers who will benefit from reduced costs on printing, fulfillment, and postage by not having to send physical mail.

Pitney Bowes has initially developed an appliance strategy to facilitate integration of high volume transaction mailers into the Volly digital delivery service. Later they will be publishing APIs for smaller mailers as well as establishing a developer community.