UPS wants to help small and midsize merchants improve shipping conditions and plans to partner with e-commerce solution providers in the future.

Share
Tweet
Share

The U.S. parcel services provider plans to use the new UPS Digital Access Program to build a deeper relationship with e-commerce solution providers. This will benefit small and midsize retailers who work with service providers to get better conditions for shipping with UPS. “UPS wants to do business where our customers do business,” Nick Basford, Vice President of Global Retail and Ecommerce at UPS Inc. told Digital Commerce 360.

UPS is working with Stamps.com, which offers Internet-based mailing and shipping services, among others, to implement the newly planned program.

Stamps.com’s 740,000 e-commerce merchants will benefit from lower shipping charges as a result of the new partnership with the CEP service provider.

Better conditions

“Shipping and logistics are an important part of how retailers differentiate themselves from others,” says Nick Basford. The UPS Digital Access Program is designed to help small and medium-sized retailers compete with large retail chains such as Best Buy, he continues. It is expected that rates will be up to 55% lower than UPS’s regular rates.

“The promise is that we can help vendors make shipping and logistics easier for their customers,” says Basford, explaining the concept. In the past, the only way online merchants could work with us was to build a direct relationship with us. According to Basford, however, this creates complexity and often higher costs because small and medium merchants do not have the leverage to negotiate lower rates with UPS. This is expected to change in the future, as the new program will allow small merchants to benefit from better conditions.

 

You might be also interested in:

Tchibo and Otto test reusable shipping packages

Hermes invests heavily in the fight against the flood of parcels

 

Image: Juanmonino/ istockphoto.com

//JP