A digital mailbox allows individuals and businesses to receive, read and manage letters and parcels remotely through the combination of a virtual address and an online mail management platform.
How do digital mailboxes work?
Digital mailboxes work by combining virtual addresses with online mail management. In order to function, customers will receive an address for all of their inbound mail. When mail arrives, they can view and manage everything using an online mail management platform.
Digital mailbox address
Your digital mailbox address, or virtual address, is the location used for all of your inbound mail. You’ll be allocated a unique address when you sign up, and you’ll need to use this address as your delivery information for any mail communications you want to arrive at your digital mailbox.
Online mail management
When mail arrives at your digital mailbox address, it’s processed and scanned securely. A scan will be available online for you to view online and take additional actions on, such as storing, forwarding or destroying any received mail.
What services are available with a digital mailbox?
There are many additional services available alongside digital mailboxes. It’s up to you which you use and when you use them. Every account has access to all features.
- Receive inbound mail - Use your digital mailbox address for all letter and parcel deliveries. Any inbound mail will arrive at your address, where it will be received and processed.
- View mail scans online - View scans of envelopes and letter pages using an online platform. Read your letters and view your parcels remotely so that you can decide what action to take next.
- Physical and digital storage - All letters and parcels can be stored physically in a secure warehouse. If you do not need a copy of your physical letters, you can save digital copies via the platform to reference at a later date.
- Shred and recycle documents - When you don’t want a physical document kept, you can request that it be securely disposed of.
- International post forwarding - Forward any physical letters and parcels internationally. Choose from various shipping methods and couriers.
- Send outbound mail - Upload a document, provide information about the delivery address and method, and a letter can be printed and posted on your behalf, no matter where you are.
- Integrate with other platforms - Connect your digital mailbox account with other cloud storage solutions, such as Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive to automatically share and store mail items in the platforms you regularly use.
- Shop and ship - Your digital mailbox can be used as a hub for online shopping. Purchase UK goods and have them sent to your mailbox, ready to forward elsewhere. You can consolidate multiple goods into one parcel to save on postage costs.
- E-retail - Digital mailboxes are utilised by dropshipping and fulfilment companies in several ways, such as for a returns address, or as a fulfilment centre. To learn more about this, please visit our e-retail page.
What are the benefits of a digital mailbox?
Digital mailboxes offer benefits to individuals and businesses in many different ways. How you benefit will depend on your personal circumstances. Some of the most commonly reported benefits of digital mailboxes are as follows:
- Address security - Digital mailboxes protect your real address location, which can benefit a range of people for various reasons.
- Receive and access mail from anywhere - No matter where you are in the world, as long as you have a connected device, you’ll be able to read, respond and manage your mail.
- Reduced risk - If you’re unable to access your home or office for any reason, such as fire, flood and pandemics, a digital mailbox ensures that you still have access to your mail items and reduces the risk of them being lost, destroyed or being inaccessible.
- Go paperless - Moving to a digital solution allows you to go paperless, reducing clutter in your home or helping companies to meet their sustainability goals.
- One address for life - As you move home, country or offices throughout life, you’ll need to update your address information each time you move. Having a single, constant address in a digital mailbox allows you to reduce the time and stress spent on updating address information throughout your life.
- Have a UK presence from overseas - Whether you’ve moved away from the UK, or you’ve never lived here, a digital mailbox allows you to have an address no matter where you are in the world.
- Access UK based shops and services - Some UK based services and shops will only accept and ship to UK addresses. Combining your digital mailbox with a forwarding service allows you to use these shops and services and then forward any items to your location overseas.
- Flexible account plans - There are many digital mailbox plans available, so it doesn’t matter if you expect to receive 1 letter per month or 10,000, accounts are designed to provide value for every level of usage.
Who uses digital mailboxes?
Individuals and businesses use digital mailboxes for a variety of different reasons. While the service is essentially the same, they offer different solutions to different people. Here are some examples of who’s using digital mailboxes.
- Company directors - Digital mailboxes can be used as the official company address, and offer a way to receive and access mail remotely.
- Dropshipping & fulfilment companies - Digital mailbox addresses offer a location that dropshippers and fulfilment companies can use to store and distribute goods when they receive orders.
- E-retailers - Similarly to dropshipping and fulfilment companies, digital mailboxes offer a location for their goods, as well as giving them a returns address for handling customer returns.
- Frequent travellers - People who regularly move for personal reasons or for work may find it difficult to keep up with mail communications. A digital mailbox gives them a fixed location and the ability to access their mail while on the move.
- Home based businesses - Many smaller companies will consider using their home address for their business, but this can lead to security issues, and instead they utilise digital mailboxes to keep their personal location protected.
- Influencers and online figures - Influencers will often share their address to receive mail from fans, but this poses a risk to their security. Digital mailboxes allow them to stay anonymous without sacrificing their ability to receive and respond to mail.
- International shoppers - Some online stores do not offer international shipping, and purchasing from multiple stores and shipping abroad can be expensive. A digital mailbox solves both problems by offering a UK address to receive mail and a consolidation service to combine parcels to save on shipping.
- Expats - People moving away from the UK may still need to access their post. This could be anything from pension statements to personal correspondence.
- People living in mobile accommodation - Anyone living in mobile accommodation may not have any fixed address and regularly move. A digital mailbox gives them a location to receive correspondence and sign up for services, and means they can access their post while on the move.
- Personal assistants & Virtual PA - Personal assistants can streamline the way they manage mail for their clients and access correspondence on the move.
- Property renters - For people renting a property in the short term, or regularly moving rental properties, updating address information can become time-consuming and poses the risk of losing access to mail. Digital mailboxes solve these problems by providing a single continuous address to use while changing residential properties.
- People relocating abroad - Whether in the short or long term, anyone moving abroad may still need to receive and access UK mail. They may also need UK based services, such as banking, which will require a UK address to use.
- SMEs - Digital mailboxes allow businesses to handle postal communications remotely and distribute mail to their team using cloud integrations. It also offers them a business address they can use for registering their company, as a directors’ service address, business trading address and for receiving official correspondence.
- Sole traders - Sole traders may need an address for their business operations and business trading address. Digital mailboxes offer them a way to do this without using their home address.
- Students - Many students will move addresses several times throughout their studies, meaning they’ll have to update their contact information regularly. Having a digital mailbox instead offers a single address they can use while working towards their qualifications.
- Vulnerable people - Digital mailboxes offer a protected way to sign up and receive mail deliveries without sharing your real life location, helping vulnerable people keep their identity safe.
How to get your digital mailbox
Getting a digital mailbox is simple. You’ll just need to choose an account plan and provide some identification. As digital mailboxes handle personal mail, it’s a requirement that your identity is verified before an account can be opened. You can learn more about this on our identity verification page.
When creating your account, you’ll be asked to choose between the following options:
- Virtual address - There are different types of addresses available across multiple locations. Check which options meet your requirements and, if asked, choose the location you’d like your address to be based on.
- Mail plan - Choose a plan that closely matches how much mail you expect to receive. You can always change this at a later date, and if you’re unsure, we offer a pay-as-you-go option to get started with.
If you have any questions or are unsure which plan is best for you, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
