UPS (NYSE:UPS) is announcing a new collaboration with Shippo – a leading shipping and logistics app for small- to mid-sized retailers. Shippo’s 35,000 businesses can now easily create an account with UPS and those customers can receive its discounted daily shipping rates of up to 55%.
“We integrate closely with every step of the order fulfillment process – from e-commerce platforms and marketplaces to leading global carrier integrations – to let businesses focus on growing their company, rather than on logistics,” said Laura Behrens Wu, Co-Founder and CEO of Shippo. “This new partnership allows us to present competitive UPS shipping options to our customers – helping to level the playing field for SMBs [small- and medium-sized businesses], versus larger shippers with the scale to negotiate their own discounted rates. This collaboration also validates UPS’ commitment to accelerating the growth and success of small online merchants.”
From the customer perspective, Shippo makes shopping at small online businesses easy. With Shippo’s network of partners, including Amazon, eBay, Magento, Weebly and Wix, customers can easily navigate Shippo’s unified platform.
When UPS was asked how the collaboration with Shippo would benefit it, UPS responded, “Together, UPS and Shippo can help SMBs simplify complex fulfillment processes and ensure timely delivery so those SMBs can instead focus on what they do best – running their business. With this collaboration, UPS services will be presented natively within the Shippo platform, making it easy for SMBs to choose UPS without being redirected to a different site.”
The Shippo-UPS partnership will provide benefits to Shippo businesses to meet the versatile expectations of ecommerce shoppers, such as shipping discounts, waived surcharges, UPS 2nd Day Air® and UPS Ground® services.
UPS has had its eyes set on leading e-commerce platforms like Shippo to gain access to more online SMB customers.
Regarding its recent in-house platform developments, UPS told Freightwaves, “In 2018, UPS launched Ware2Go, a technology company and digital platform that matches available warehouse space and fulfillment services to merchants’ needs using both UPS and non-UPS warehouse space. The solution is especially attractive to small and medium-sized companies that need to forward stock inventory and fulfill orders for business-to-business e-commerce. In 2019, UPS introduced eFulfillment, which offers small- and medium-sized businesses worldwide streamlined fulfillment and shipping services to consumers in the U.S. and Canada. The solution supports purchases and orders from 21 different marketplaces and web stores, including eBay, Etsy, Wal-Mart and Amazon, including Prime.”
While UPS also works to develop its own platform for shipping and logistics, it still seeks affiliate partners to cast the widest net.
