Pitney Bowes said some of the largest mailers in the US had opted to use the service which will enable them to offer digital delivery of bills, statements, financial documents and other content to their customers through its Volly secure digital delivery service.
The mailers collectively represent more than 6,000 leading companies and consumer brands and more than 7 billion pieces of transactional mail per year, according to Pitney Bowes.
In an interview with PrintWeek Volly sales VP Brian Wilson explained that Volly is focused on the consumer experience, enabling them to access bills, coupons and other information such as the amount of data left on your monthly wireless plan all at a single location, and on whichever device the consumer chooses.
"What we’ve found in our research is that consumers want to streamline that whole process and also be notified, for example, when a coupon is about to expire," Wilson said. "So our focus is converting all that communication to digital. We can then provide it however the consumer wants to receive it, whether it’s digital or physical. We view Volly as just another channel."
With Volly secure digital delivery service, consumers will be able to receive, view, organize, manage, pay and store bills, statements and other content from the companies they do business with.
Volly consolidates this information from multiple providers, reducing the consumer’s need to visit multiple websites or send physical checks through the mail.
If Volly succeeds, and based on research and testing Pitney Bowes is very optimistic, it is likely to present a challenge going forward for some US commercial printers, especially those who make their living in the trans-promo space.
But Wilson suggested that Volly could be a catalyst that enables many traditional commercial printers to transition to marketing and communications service companies by working with Pitney Bowes to provide Volly to their clients.
"It’s really not that far of a stretch for them to add a digital channel," he said. "And if the commercial printer adopts a digital strategy this could be a real opportunity for them."
