Shopify has teamed up with UPS to provide merchants on its platform with special rates normally only available to bigger business customers, and direct Shopify platform integration of UPS shipping, billing, and tracking services.
The special pricing includes “pre-negotiated domestic and international rates” for Shopify sellers, which the companies say are lower than the posted list prices for serves including UPS 2nd Day Air and UPS Ground, to give them a range of options in terms of delivery speed and pricing to offer customers. It’s almost like getting a volume discount without the volume, which is useful for small merchants trying to keep pace with bigger ecommerce players.
This feature addition is also arriving just in time for the holiday shopping season. Alongside the shipping tools integration and special rates, UPS and Shopify are also offering a dedicated shipping support line which will run every day, all day, between now and the end of November.
Putting a complete UPS dashboard right inside of Shopify is definitely a way to help encourage its use as a shipping option for the commerce provider’s many merchants. Shopify also offers special negotiated rates with DHL Express via its platform, and says that this new UPS deal could result in future savings regarding pickups, as well as direct shipping to UPS Access Point pickup locations for customers, and integration of UPS My Choice services.