Are you struggling to keep track of your physical mail? Perhaps your business doesn’t have a permanent address, or the piles of mail cause a lot of inconvenience to you and your team. Maybe you’re running your business from home or travelling regularly for work. In any case, dealing with incoming post properly can be tricky for many reasons.

PO boxes can be expensive (£352.40 per year for the cheapest solution from Royal Mail, PO Box Collect, as of November 2024) and are only a solution for some things. For instance, with Royal Mail’s PO Box Collect you’ll need to get your post from the local customer service point—which might not be close to your home address. It also takes time, that as a busy business owner you might not have. PO Box Deliver will send mail to the address of your choice, but this will set you back £424.20 per year. Plus there are a handful of alternatives.

If those prices put you off, don’t worry, because this is exactly where the virtual mailbox and UK mail forwarding services by The Hoxton Mix step in.

A virtual mailbox is part of the complete line-up of The Hoxton Mix services and one of the most popular options among our clients. It can alleviate the stress of mail handling for small to medium-sized companies working remotely or within a more traditional office setup. For those who haven’t had a virtual mailbox before, this article will explain what it is and how it benefits your business.

Just so you know, a mailbox can be complemented by a full suite of professional mailroom, telephone answering, and meeting room add-ons. Just create the exact virtual office package with The Hoxton Mix that’ll work best for you. Now, let’s cover the basics.

What is a Virtual Mailbox in the UK?

Before we look at how virtual mailboxes actually work and how you can go about getting a virtual mailbox for your business, let’s clarify the definition.

In the UK, a virtual business mailbox is a service that receives physical mail and packages on your behalf. Your mail and packages are delivered to real street addresses provided by the virtual mailbox company.

What happens to your mail next is up to you, but there are three main options depending on which type of virtual mailbox solution you’d prefer:

Virtual Office Collect is the most basic package, starting from just £12.50 per month. We receive, log, and safely store your incoming post for you, then email you on the same day to let you know there’s new mail to pick up. You can swing by and collect it whenever is most convenient for you. As with all our virtual mailbox services, there are no hidden handling charges or sneaky additional fees — your flat monthly rate is all you pay, regardless of how many letters you receive.
Virtual Office Forward is an enhanced virtual mailbox package, ideal if you’re not local to us: rather than having to come and collect your letters from us yourself, we forward them to you at your private address elsewhere. Again, it’s the same-day service — your post is sent out to you as soon as it lands with us — and we’ll always contact you by email to let you know it’s on the way. This is an upgrade that most of our clients tend to go for; a virtual office with mail forwarding is incredibly convenient and cost-effective, starting from under £21 per month (with no additional charges for any onward postage, of course). If collecting all of your mail yourself would require more than a couple of monthly trips, our forwarding service will save you considerable time, effort and money from day one.
Virtual Office Scan is our most cutting-edge and eco-friendly virtual mailbox system, adding a full digitisation service to the core options outlined above. After receiving and logging an incoming post for you, we’ll create high-resolution scans of your important documents and convert them to PDF format with full-text search functionality. These digital versions of your mail are then emailed securely to you within hours of arriving at The Hoxton Mix HQ.

This scanning system gives you direct access to your incoming mail with almost no delay and instantly puts a fully searchable archive of everything you receive right at your fingertips. Secure on-site shredding (we’re fully certified with the ICO under the Data Protection Act 1998) and remote recycling of hard copies is offered as part of a lean, clean, highly sustainable service that starts from under £30 a month.

How Does a Virtual Mailbox Work?

So, how does a virtual mailbox work?

A virtual mailbox works just like a normal one, except the post you receive is sent to a virtual business mailing address. Your physical mail is sent to our address, and then we upload it to cloud storage that you can access from anywhere.

In this case, it’s the same prime Shoreditch mailbox address that you’ll be using for all your company and client dealings as part of our core virtual office service. Letters sent to your London business address are received by us at our head offices and handled on your behalf. This ensures you’re able to separate your business address from your home address.

We also offer a personal virtual mailbox in the UK, but the truth is that business mailing addresses are not that different from personal ones. The description of our service for businesses will apply to a virtual mailbox for expats as well.

Key Benefits of a Virtual Mailbox for Business

In no particular order, the main benefits of using a Hoxton Mix virtual mailing address are:

Convenience and Flexibility

You can decide which mail-handling solution would work best for you and your business setup, and pick your package accordingly. You can pay for the service on a rolling monthly basis, and you’re free to switch options or quit at any time — with no cancellation charges whatsoever.

Increased Privacy

Don’t feel it’s appropriate to use your home address for client contacts when running a business remotely? Are you concerned about any security implications of having your physical address logged on the public record as your company HQ? A virtual office service from The Hoxton Mix solves both issues in one go: your company will be formed and registered in the UK under a premium London business address for clients and official Companies House purposes.

Professional Image

If you’re a small business, receiving your post from customers to a home address can appear unprofessional, and make your company look like less of a legitimate operation—and there’s nothing more important than appearing professional when you’re just starting a business. You need to be taken seriously, and this is unlikely to happen if clients think you’re working out of your family basement.

Having a virtual mailbox will give the right impression – that you’re a real business which is set up, ready to go and that can be trusted to deliver first-class products or services. Even on a subconscious level, this is important for generating new customers and repeat business!

Save Time, Money and Effort

Whichever of our virtual mailbox services you choose, outsourcing your post handling is an incredibly efficient way of managing your business mail. Higher-tier options like forwarding, scanning and digitisation mean you won’t even have to think about your incoming mail — it just shows up quickly, securely and reliably, and you always know when it’s on the way.

Enhanced Security and Reliability

Because your mailbox has a virtual address and arrives at our physical office spaces in Shoreditch, you can rest assured that our professional team is on-site throughout the working day. This means your important letters and deliveries will always be received and secured promptly, with no risk of them being left unattended or returned to the sender because you weren’t available to take delivery yourself.

Trust from Customers

Many people are wary of websites that promise the world yet only appear to be online. Ask yourself, would you buy from a website that offered no fixed address or simply a PO box number? Neither will your clients.

If you’re selling something with a real address, your customer is likely to feel reassured knowing they know how to contact you. With a virtual mailbox, your customers can write to you or send payments to you directly, rather than sending correspondence or money online—andtthis is still important to many people.

Constancy and Consistency

If you’re regularly on the move this can be an issue for one of two reasons: either you won’t have any visibility of this important correspondence, or you have to keep changing your publicised business address, which doesn’t look very professional or legitimate, and is likely to put customers off dealing with you.

However, with a virtual mailbox, your business can continue to receive post to one place, while our digitisation service can ensure you continue receiving your post even if you’re not available to receive or collect it physically.

What’s more, if you want to relocate your company to a new location, using a UK virtual mailbox makes it much easier. You won’t have to worry about updating all your contact details for clients, print and web advertising, letterheads and business cards — your virtual office address always stays the same, regardless of where you’re based.

Quick and Easy to Set Up

If you’re trying to find a solution while setting up your business quickly, you may find that the paperwork for setting up a PO box requires a lot of time and effort. However, when setting up a virtual mailbox, you’ll be able to go through a ten-minute sign-up process easily online and choose the package which is right for you.

You’ll then be guaranteed a premium postcode in London with no handling costs, and email alerts whenever you receive something in the post.

Adopt Other Virtual Office Services

A virtual mailbox is just one of the virtual office services available to you from The Hoxton Mix.

While a mailbox—alongside a virtual business phone number—in a prime London location will give a more professional image for your business and ensure you don’t have to publicise your home address and personal phone number, what if you want to have meetings with your customers? The local coffee shop isn’t likely to be suitable.

Fortunately, The Hoxton Mix meeting rooms are available to our virtual office customers, and represent the best value in London. You can hire a private meeting room from just £35 per hour (+VAT), between 9.30am and 5.30pm Monday-Friday. Tea and coffee is even provided free of charge, while our reception team will be available to welcome guests and show them to the correct room.

So, if you’re looking for some of the most affordable meeting rooms London has to offer, look no further than our comprehensive virtual office services.

We can also provide support with company formation for just £10, as well as free business banking with Tide.

What are the Disadvantages of a Virtual Mailbox?

Look - we’re a virtual mailbox and office provider so we’re probably biased - but that doesn’t mean we don’t know there are some disadvantages (although not many!)

The main disadvantage of a virtual mailbox isn’t a function of virtual mailboxes, but rather not having a physical business office to support business growth. If you want to hire employees or need a regular location for client meetings, you might eventually need a real office—although since the shift to remote working was accelerated during Covid, this is much less of a consideration for businesses these days.

Additionally, when you have a virtual mailbox you can’t typically collect your post and packages, instead relying on the provider forwarding them to an address of your choice. However, this isn’t the case with the Hoxton Mix, as our Virtual Office Collect service offers a prime central London address and collection point.

How to Create a Virtual Mailbox?

If you want to know how to rent a virtual mailbox, we can assure you that with The Hoxton Mix it’s an incredibly simple process.

Go through our service plans and pick the type of business virtual mailbox that will suit your specific situation and requirements the most.

Then, customise the plan with add-ons if needed, and pay with the available payment methods. That’s it.

We’ll provide you with a street address, and you won’t have to worry about revealing your real home address or wasting time handling mail yourself.

Let Us Help Set Up Your Virtual Mailbox and Get Started Today

If you’ve decided that a virtual mailbox is the best way for you to streamline your working process and make your business appear professional, we can help.

When signing up to a virtual mailbox from The Hoxton Mix you’ll benefit from our years of experience and exceptional customer service—but if you’re not satisfied with your plan you can rest assured that you’re able to cancel at any time.

Virtual mailboxes are remarkably cheap and easy to set up with The Hoxton Mix, particularly when they’re selected as part of our comprehensive virtual office service plan — you can have all your incoming post handled and sorted by us for as little as £15 per month (+VAT).

It’s also straightforward to add other services and features to your plan, making the process of receiving mail remotely even more convenient. Many of our clients also opt to use a virtual assistant to handle basic admin tasks like email replies, scanning and forwarding, and various scheduling tasks.
Visit our virtual office address in London page to learn more about The Hoxton Mix's benefits.

FAQ

Is it a good idea to have a virtual mailbox?

A virtual mailbox is an excellent idea for businesses without a physical office address, particularly if you don’t like the idea of having to publicise your residential address and receive all your business mail at home. Virtual mailbox services can forward all of your business correspondence to an address of your choosing, or digitise it and send on as PDFs—simplifying the process of managing your mail significantly.

How do I receive mail from a virtual mailbox?

The post office will send your mail to our permanent address, and depending on your plan, you can collect it from our Shoreditch office, we’ll forward it to the address of your choice, or we’ll digitise your mail and send it in PDF format

Are virtual mailboxes safe?

Yes, you can get a virtual mailbox knowing that we follow a robust security protocol, and our secure facility benefits from 24/7 monitoring and restricted access technology. We also only store your mail for a short time, sending it to your private address within one business day via bar-coded and tracked delivery. When you choose Hoxton Mix as your virtual postal address provider, you can rest assured that your data will not fall into the wrong hands, and we’ll ensure your post is forwarded onto you securely.

Is a virtual mailbox the same as a virtual address?

Some providers separate a virtual mailbox for small business and office-related plans. Some services offer mail opening and scanning under the same umbrella as a virtual office.