UPS and Shopify Inc. are unveiling a platform integration in time for the holiday shopping season that make UPS’s premium services available to small businesses.
Shopify’s hundreds of thousands of small U.S. businesses will now receive competitive, pre-negotiated domestic and international rates that save on list prices, along with a streamlined shipping and fulfillment solution.
With UPS Services and Solutions integrated into the Shopify platform, businesses can now more easily manage shipping and fulfillment in one place. UPS Services includes customs brokerage and international tools, plus global logistics, distribution and freight forwarding.
Several services including UPS 2nd Day Air and UPS Ground are available to give merchants the flexibility and speed needed to meet customer needs at a good value. Tracking and billing are also integrated into Shopify, helping reduce the time and effort it takes a business owner to keep up with the status and cost of shipments.
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In addition to the new, competitive rates already embedded, future Shopify Shipping enhancements could include savings on pickups, the ability to ship to 8,800 UPS Access Point locations, UPS My Choice service for customers to personalize delivery times and locations, simplified online solutions for returns, and other elements of UPS’s suite of e-commerce solutions.
“By embedding UPS natively into Shopify’s platform, merchants will get the breadth and reliability of UPS’s services to more than 220 countries and territories, while easily managing all aspects of shipping and fulfillment in one place,” said Jerome Roberts, vice president of UPS Global Product Innovation. “Shopify merchants now have access to UPS’s industry-leading tools and can provide the same high-quality services as large ecommerce companies.”
Shopify merchants can activate UPS shipping rates and labels with a one-click acceptance of UPS terms and conditions in Shopify Shipping.
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“UPS and Shopify believe entrepreneurship should be accessible to everyone, and we share a unique passion to empower small businesses who form the backbone of the global economy,” said Maia Benson, head of Global Shipping and Fulfillment at Shopify. “Working with UPS helps level the playing field for small businesses to compete against larger brands with guaranteed delivery times and competitive rates previously unavailable to many small- and medium-sized merchants.”
Shopify is one of the leading cloud-based, multi-channel commerce platforms designed for small and medium-sized businesses. Merchants can use the software to design, set up and manage their stores across multiple sales channels. The platform also provides merchants with a powerful back-office and a single view of their business. Shopify currently powers over 500,000 businesses in 175 countries.