A virtual address for business is a solution that came around less than 10 years ago and has grown in popularity. As digital solutions evolved, becoming more cost-effective and efficient, businesses implemented them to capitalize on virtual and technological innovations. More recently, the pandemic drove a lot of digital innovation because of lockdowns and remote work.
Considering 26% of US employees work remotely as of 2022, a virtual address for a business may be more relevant today than it was before. By 2025, it's estimated that 36.2 million US employees will be working remotely. With remote and hybrid work increasing, solutions like a virtual business address are an important digital transformation step for businesses to consider.
What is a Virtual Address?
A virtual address is a real street address of an office building or mail center where businesses direct their mail. However, businesses that have a virtual address don’t own or rent any property at that address. You don't need to have a virtual address in the state your business is in. You can have virtual addresses in other locations, which can be a good way to expand your reach.
Companies can obtain a virtual address for business through a digital mail solution platform such as Exela’s Digital Mailroom. These types of solutions are quick and easy to implement. Once you sign up, you select your virtual address, and you decide how you want your mail to be delivered to you, whether it's redirected to another facility or digitized and sent to you and your team online.
Solutions like Exela’s Digital Mailroom often come in many different plans to meet whatever needs you may have, whether you're a small business or an enterprise company. It's a great cost-effective solution that many businesses choose to take advantage of as their first steps in their digital transformation strategy.
The Benefits of a Virtual Address for Business
A virtual address for business is a good idea for businesses of any size due to the many benefits businesses can experience including:
Saving Money
Companies that are considering expanding into new locations no longer need to look into renting new office facilities. Instead, they can build a remote team and have a virtual business address in that location, saving money on rent, utility bills, office supplies, upkeep, and cleaning.
Gaining Consumer Trust
With so many businesses online now, consumers are becoming wary and aware of which companies they choose to make purchases with. Consumers look for aspects of a company that they can trust and one way to show consumers that you are a reputable organization is to provide them with an address. An online website with no address or phone number looks suspicious compared to one that provides an address and phone number.
According to a 2021 study, 67% of buyers trust local businesses more than online-only businesses. Having a virtual address for business lets customers know that your business is trustworthy.
Selecting a Location
Even if your business is located in one area, your virtual business address can be located just about anywhere else. So if you’ve discovered that there's a market for your services in a particular place where your business is not physically located, it may be a good move to purchase a virtual business address in that new location. This will give your business a presence in that location.
At the same time, a virtual business address gives you the opportunity to expand without physically needing to expand. With virtual business addresses, a company can have virtual locations in many different areas around the country. This allows companies to test out the markets in those locations without physically relocating.
Chain of Custody
With a virtual business address comes digital mail. If a company chooses to have its mail digitized and sent to recipients electronically, they will have a complete chain of custody and access to all important mail. There would be no searching for mail in file cabinets or losing important mail because it is all digitized and uploaded into the cloud, allowing companies to easily find and track mail.
What to Consider with a Virtual Address
A virtual address is great for companies that have remote employees because it creates a seamless workflow for employees to still receive important mail securely and directly. For businesses that work entirely onsite, a virtual address for business may not be needed, but may still be worth considering because of the many benefits it brings, including expanding virtually and digitizing mail.
Another aspect to consider is the volume of mail your organization receives. Your company may be entirely onsite and not looking to expand, but if you're receiving hundreds or thousands of mail and packages a day, it may make sense to use a digital mailroom to digitize all the mail you're receiving rather than hiring more personnel to ensure each piece of mail gets to the correct recipient. Not to mention the process of destroying or storing the mail which could be a time-consuming and expensive process. With a virtual business address and digital mail, a third party like Exela, would take care of these more labor-intensive and costly tasks.
Virtual addresses will not be used on Google Maps. According to the guidelines for Google My Business, if the business doesn't operate out of the physical location, then the business is not eligible for a business profile on Google. This is certainly a consideration to keep in mind when looking into a virtual business address, especially if you're considering having a virtual business address in a new location.
Exela's Digital Mailroom Provides a Secure Virtual Experience
A virtual address for business provides many benefits and should be a consideration for any business looking into digital transformation. Exela’s Digital Mailroom offers companies the option for a virtual address for business as well as a secure mail solution. Exela’s Digital Mailroom offers a nationwide network to help securely digitize mail, scan checks, and handle packages, taking the burden off of your company. A virtual business address often costs a fraction of the price of renting an office space and is a viable option for many companies. Consider a virtual business address and digital mailroom for your next digital solution.
