iPostal1
Revolutionizing the Digital Mailbox Industry

iPostal1’s journey to becoming the largest digital mailbox provider is an unusual success story.

A bootstrapped company, it evolved from its grassroots origins to an industry leader exceeding 1 million subscribers by the end of 2023. The secret sauce has been tapping into a basic advancement in mail and package delivery and delivering a genius business model that addresses a pressing need in the country.

iPostal1 created the current model of the digital mailbox industry and continues to lead the charge, offering convenience, security, and peace of mind to its customers. In a world where managing mail and packages while away can be challenging, it provides a comprehensive solution for all mailbox needs, for individuals and businesses.

It has partnered with numerous independent shipping stores, co-working offices, and retailers like Staples to provide customers with a real street address in over 3,000 mailbox locations where they can receive their postal mail and packages. Those 3,000 locations are within 10 miles of 80 percent of the U.S. population. Individuals and businesses no longer need to worry about missing important mail, about package theft, or for the roughly 500,000 small businesses that have used this service, about having to share their home address with vendors or customers.

Through its innovative offering, accessing and managing mail is as easy as a few clicks on a smartphone. Customers can track their mail and packages when received at iPostal1’s mailbox locations. They can request mail to be scanned, forwarded to them, or disposed of.

“Underpinning our groundbreaking contribution to the industry is the cloud-based digital mailbox technology we continually work on, adjusting and adding features in response to our customer needs,” says Jeff Milgram, founder and CEO.

Tale of Triumph

iPostal1’s journey traces back to the late 1990s, when Milgram ventured into e-commerce and became one of New York's highest volume shippers. By 2001, it had a spacious warehouse to manage shipping operations, with a small retail area in the front. Transforming this retail space into a shipping store enabled it to access better shipping rates and procure packaging materials at lower costs.

By 2007, the company had outgrown its initial space and moved into a larger warehouse. Recognizing the profitability of mailbox rentals and international shipping, the team began strategizing for the next growth phase. At the time, people worldwide could browse top products, mostly in the U.S., but could not get those delivered to them due to the lack of international shipping services.

To solve this, iPostal1 opened a website to sell its mailbox address in New York to customers internationally. It facilitated international purchases from U.S. businesses, receiving shipments in its mailbox and forwarding them to customers worldwide.

The business grew rapidly, and to keep pace with demand, it opened a large warehouse to store the products that customers purchased. The team also leveraged its background in IT to build a software platform that facilitated receiving mail and packages remotely.

Over time, several larger companies mimicked this business model. So, with a strong spirit to innovate, the team pivoted to a more sophisticated business idea. They developed a SaaS platform that would enable any postal store or co-working space to be a digital mailbox provider in the U.S., thereby creating a nationwide digital mailbox network.

“That was the ‘aha’ moment that kicked off the digital mailbox industry. Now, instead of having everyone send us their packages to one location in NY, we could receive and process a customer’s mail and packages more conveniently for them, right where they were,” says Milgram.

He approached the Retail Shippers Association, presented his business model, and started the partner network with just six stores. Milgram traveled to each store individually, setting up the software and providing training for the platform.

This marked the dawn of iPostal1, a SaaS tech company, in 2015. And the current business model ignited a revolution in how individuals and small businesses receive their mail and packages. Over the years, Milgram and his team have meticulously cultivated an extensive network of stores offering a consistent experience and suite of services to iPostal1 customers.

That was the ‘AHA’ Moment that Kicked off the Digital Mailbox Industry. Now, Instead of having Everybody Send us their Packages to one Location in NY, We Could Receive and Process a Customer’s Mail and Packages more Conveniently for them, Right where they were

Testament to the success of its business model is its key partnership with Staples. iPostal1 has installed its technology in 1,000 Staples stores across the U.S. Leveraging this technology, Staples has been able to attract new customers, increase store visits, and drive incremental revenue. Notably, iPostal1 launched the Staples platform nationally and trained around 6,000 Staples employees to operate its software in just a 30 day period.

The iPostal1 team also manages the leading digital mailbox marketing program, driving new business through its website and foot traffic to its partners. Adding new features and additional revenue streams, iPostal1 continues to increase its value, to customers and partners, relative to other digital mailbox platforms.

Beyond the Brick-and-Mortar

The mature and feature-rich platform gives customers a comprehensive solution to view all of their mail and packages in one place. When mail arrives, the team opens it, scans the content, and uploads it to the customer’s digital mailbox. Upon customer request, unimportant mail is shredded. Shipments are consolidated and delivered to customers using various shipping methods. In this way, travelers or those having multiple residences can rely on a single address to manage their mail and packages without hassle, regardless of location.

Laura M., an iPostal1 customer that needs the service when traveling writes, “I love having the app and being able to make decisions on what to do with the mail while I am traveling. The staff at the pickup was very nice and helpful. It has been a seamless experience so far.”

iPostal1 can also eliminate the pain points of brick-and-mortar mailrooms by providing building owners and landlords with a superior platform to manage their companies’ mail and packages digitally. This is especially helpful in the remote work era, with an increase in the number of packages and mail deliveries to central office mailrooms with fewer employees present.

By centralizing mail delivery for thousands of customers in a single one of its partner locations, iPostal1 is a greener delivery model than exists today. It’s more efficient for the USPS to deliver to one location than having to stop at 1,000 individual homes, 6 days per week.

The iPostal1 technology comes with robust fraud control measures to stop bad actors from intruding into the system. When the mail center drops mail into a scanner, iPostal1 uses its’ auto-insert technology to upload mail images to its servers. Optical character recognition technology streamlines and effectuates scanning. The customers’ mail is then automatically sent to their accounts, and they are notified by email or message.

The same technology is disrupting the virtual office industry. iPostal1 enables small businesses to create a virtual office address and expand their presence to new locations. It offers its customers phone and fax numbers that match the location and address they are renting. To enhance virtual office services, iPostal1 recently launched a live agent answering feature as well.

A small business owner, Maria M., sent a hearty message of gratitude to the iPostal1team:

“It gives new entrepreneurs like myself a place to start off our business that's very professional, reliable and trustworthy with its virtual office space that's official!!”

Culture Steeped in Innovation and Excellence

Customer- and partner-centricity are a core focus for iPostal1. Real-time shipping prices and options for delivery are exclusively available to iPostal1 customers.

Optimizing mail and package receiving tells part of the story. iPostal1 has gone the extra mile to make it easy for customers to mail their business clients or loved ones. The new Create and Send feature lets customers create letters and postcards, as well as invoices and statements, using a simple interface. They upload the documents in PDF format along with the recipient addresses. The customer’s letters and postcards are then printed, envelopes addressed, and postage applied. The resulting mailings are sent from the closest location to the addressee, delivering them as quickly as possible.

Notarization of documents is yet another new, innovative service. The platform provides an intuitive user interface for customers to view and notarize any documents they need notarized, with 24/7 access to an online notary.

“Underpinning our Groundbreaking Contribution to the Industry is the Cloud-Based Digital Mailbox Technology we have Perfected over the Years”

iPostal1 is also focused on making sure its new customers are set up properly. When a customer signs up for an account, they are guided through a wizard of essential questions to get started. Customers are validated and onboarded, and an address of their choice legally turns into their commercial mail-receiving agent.

Steering ahead, iPostal1 plans to facilitate guaranteed delivery, the personal delivery of packages and mail to customers' homes and into their hands. This is especially beneficial for customers who are not home during normal delivery hours and can now arrange for convenient delivery.

An open, growth-oriented mindset fueled by deep-rooted technological and logistical expertise drives iPostal1 to push the boundaries of digital mailbox innovation and seize more business opportunities, creating a winning formula for iPostal1 as well as its thousands of partners in the U.S. and internationally.