Last month the Swiss postal service launched Swiss Post Box, a program that enables subscribers to receive scans of certain snail-mail messages via email.
Upon receiving the scans in their inbox, users can decide which they want to openyg, then read the full message online.
Swiss Post Box is powered by Earth Class Mail, a Seattle-based firm that serves tens of thousands of global subscribers. This is the first time it's licensed its technology to a postal service, according to The New York Times, but chairman Ron Weiner of Earth Class says the company is now in talks with postal services in Europe and Asia about similar implementations.
For Swiss citizens, basic service for Swiss Post Box starts at 19.90 Swiss francs, the equivalent of about $18.35. Earth Class Mail clients in North America pay from $10 to $60 per month for the latter's service, depending on how much mail they want to have scanned.
Michael Laprade, for example, is a Californian who has been using Earth Class Mail for two years, primarily to have checks forwarded to him; confidential data, like credit card statements, is simply shredded.
"There are very few things you get that you actually have to have in your hand," said Laprade. Confirming that, Earth Class Mail says users recycle about 90% of the mail they receive.
In contrast, the United States Postal Service reports 40% of the mail it processes gets recycled.
Swiss Post Box is available in several Swiss cities and Frankfurt. France, Italy and Austria are expected to launch similar services; Swiss Post itself hopes to offer the program everywhere Swiss Post International has a presence, including the US, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, and Sweden.
One caveat to the service is that some worry digitized mail is more prone to abuse by disgruntled employees. But according to Weiner, Swiss Post Box meets more rigorous standards for data handling than the requirements posed by the European Union.
"Our security is extremely robust," he said, assuring audiences that employees do not have access to mail that is opened or scanned. Digital images are also encrypted. There have been no security breaches since the company's launch.
Separately from digitized snail mail, email marketing on its own is expected to become a $2 billion business by 2014, representing a projected average of 25 messages per person per day — double what they currently receive.
And as email marketing use increases in popularity, direct marketing — such as promotional snail mail — is expected to suffer.
