Zumbox and Catalog Choice Partner to Digitize Consumer Postal Mailboxes

Zumbox, the leader in digital postal mail services, today announced an agreement with Catalog Choice, the nation’s leading mail preference service. In Q1 2012, Zumbox digital mail users will be able to opt out of catalogs, donation requests, circulars and other printed brochures through their Zumbox account. As a result of the partnership, which is the first of its kind in the industry, Catalog Choice members will be able to claim their Zumbox, a digital postal mailbox tied to an individual’s verified street address, from within their Catalog Choice account.

Zumbox is a safe, highly secure, private service for every household to receive, manage and store postal mail online instead of on paper. Catalog Choice offers an easy and free way to stop unwanted postal marketing mail or indicate a preference to continue to receive it, but digitally in an online postal mailbox. Catalog Choice has made 20 million suppressions to individual titles through its 1.5 million members. By integrating the two services, users on either website can easily and effectively stop unwanted physical mail and start digital delivery of the mail they want.

“Digital postal mail holds great promise, particularly if in the switch to digital, the clutter of physical mail disappears. Zumbox is the first company to embed our service, achieving a strategic objective to continue to provide customers with ways to switch from paper to digital,” said Chuck Teller, Executive Director of Catalog Choice. “We are pleased to work with Zumbox to enable their users to stop postal advertising mail via their Zumbox and accelerate our members’ paperless mission by claiming their Zumbox using Catalog Choice.”

Catalog Choice and Zumbox will also work with leading retail brands to deliver digital catalogs directly to the Digital Postal Mailbox of interested users. Zumbox delivers richer content and is better organized and more secure than email solutions, without the cost and clutter of postal mail.

“The time for moving from paper to digital postal mail has come and advertising mail is one critical component of that transition,” said John Payne, CEO of Zumbox. “While I might prefer to see little marketing mail in my digital mailbox, my wife would think her mailbox was broken if it didn’t contain the important catalogues, coupons and offers she uses all the time. With Catalog Choice we can express preferences that make both of us happy, by delivering that critical marketing mail digitally and eliminating the costs, clutter and environmental issues tied to paper mail.”

About Zumbox Zumbox is the world’s first digital postal system. Every street address in the United States has already been assigned a digital mailbox, powered by Zumbox, which enables all consumer households to receive, manage and store all their postal mail and other important documents in one secure place online. In the US, Zumbox operates a free consumer Internet service that connects large transactional, financial and government mailers to consumer households so consumers can receive mail digitally instead of on paper. Users use their digital mailbox to make payments, set reminders or vote on proxies while archiving their mail and household records online forever, for free. Outside the US, the company licenses its Zumbox Platform to national postal authorities and large commercial mailers.

Zumbox represents a more cost-effective, convenient and environmentally responsible way to deliver postal mail. Unlike email, Zumbox is a closed system of known, authorized mailers and verified recipients. Zumbox provides bank-level security and complies with PCI, HIPAA and BITS security standards.

About Catalog Choice Founded in 2007 to provide consumers greater control over the marketing materials that enter their mailboxes, Catalog Choice is the world’s largest preference and privacy portal with more than 1.5 million consumer members and 4,100 direct marketing companies. By reducing unnecessary mail and phone books, Catalog Choice’s free and low-cost services reduce deforestation, greenhouse gases, solid waste and water consumption. Catalog Choice, a non-profit organization based in Berkeley, Calif., is supported by grants from the Overbrook Foundation, Kendeda Fund, Merck Family Fund and Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, as well as donations from members.