Shopify and UPS Partner to Improve Merchant Shipping

November 16, 2017

There’s nothing worse than ordering the perfect Christmas gift online and having it arrive on Boxing Day.

Shopify and UPS are teaming up to prevent the dreaded post-holiday delivery blues with a partnership that brings premium shipping services to small business owners.

The hundreds of thousands of small business owners registered with Shopify in the U.S. will now receive pre-negotiated domestic and international rates that are cheaper than the standard list prices, in addition to a better shipping and fulfillment solution.

Managing the shipment and fulfillment of products is now streamlined with the integrated UPS and Shopify partnership. Services like the 2nd Day Air and UPS Ground allow merchants the flexibility and speed to meet customer expectations, and tracking means shop owners can reduce the time needed to keep up with the status of a shipment.

“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, VP of global product innovation at UPS.

“Shopify merchants now have access to UPS’s industry-leading tools and can provide the same high-quality services as large e-commerce companies,” he added.

This partnership is only the beginning, considering future Shopify enhancements may lead to savings on pickups, the ability to ship to 8,800 UPS Access Points, personalized delivery times and more.

Shopify merchants have to simply click once and accept UPS’ shipping rates and labels to activate the service. There will also be a dedicated support line for merchants to receive advice and consultations.

“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, Shopify’s head of global shipping and fulfillment.

Since the launch of Shopify Shipping in 2015, 27 per cent of eligible merchants have used the service. Over 70 per cent of those using the service send something across a border, a process that can often be costly and convoluted, so the new partnership with UPS will help to solve some of these headaches.

In total, Shopify merchants send 10 per cent of the millions of monthly shipments across borders, with the top destinations being Canada, the U.S., U.K., Australia, Germany and France.