Definition of courtesy reply envelope

preaddressed reply envelope that requires the sender to pay the postage. Although courtesy reply envelopes are frequently sent with invoices, most direct marketers prefer to pay the return postage on envelopes enclosed for orders, to avoid creating any additional obstacle to ordering on the part of the customer. When deciding whether to use a prepaid envelope or a courtesy reply envelope, the marketer must weigh the cost of the postage against the impact on response. Presumably, response to any type of promotion will be higher if the reply postage is prepaid, but testing sometimes proves the greater response does not bring in enough additional revenue to cover the cost of postage. However, response is always higher if a preaddressed envelope is used, with or without postage, saving the buyer the trouble of providing and addressing an envelope.