USPS Adds E-Commerce Component to Direct Mail

The USPS is testing a new feature to engage consumers through mobile devices and make snail-mail marketing more attractive to retail marketers. The revelation came from Postmaster General Megan Brennan in a keynote speech at the National Postal Forum on Monday. The project, known as real mail notification, is being piloted in Northern Virginia and enables customers to use a mobile device to see what's arriving in their physical mailbox — but it goes beyond being a simple alerting service. The USPS wants to engage recipients who sign up for the service.