UPS launches new technology company and quick turnaround fulfilment platform
UPS has announced a new service, Ware2Go, that aims to match up merchants with short-term warehouse space close to their markets.
Ware2Go recruits and certifies warehouses in strategic locations, establishing a network of vetted fulfilment partners. Merchants can then position products closer to their customers without the need for researching or vetting providers, or making long-term volume and time commitments. Ware2Go’s cloud-based platform and solution provides merchants with end-to-end order fulfilment – storage, pick/pack fulfilment and shipping – with guaranteed two-day delivery by UPS. Ware2Go manages the relationships with warehouses, merchants are onboarded, managed and can pay automatically.
UPS is clearly aiming at retailers looking to ship orders to at very short turnaround times, and as we mentioned yesterday in our article, those serving a rapidly growing e-commerce market. It noted in its press release that they expect Ware2Go to be used by merchants who “sell online, primarily to other businesses, and want fast, consistent, time-in-transit for shipments. They have few distribution centres and could benefit from more warehouse space for rent in other areas of the US.”
Ware2Go is also a move by UPS to address a growing shortage in warehousing and distribution centre space. As we noted in an article in July, vacancies for US industrial space are at their lowest since 2000 with 32 consecutive quarters of declining supply.
The new business augments the company’s suite of custom e-commerce solutions designed to support small and medium-sized companies.
“Ware2Go uses innovative online technology to match excess warehouse and fulfilment capacity with merchant demand to provide transparent inventory, order fulfilment and final delivery,” said Scott Price, Chief Transformation and Strategy Officer. “We’re solving for two major problems: speed to market and efficient warehousing.”
When a warehouse registers with Ware2Go, the platform matches unused capacity and capabilities with merchants. Ware2Go identifies merchants looking for fulfilment services and then on-boards, manages and bills customers , as well as tracking the order.
“The flexibility Ware2Go offers merchants and warehouse operators, especially companies in the industrial, automotive and tech sectors, means they can compete more effectively and profitably in the market,” said Price. “Ware2Go leverages the scope and scale of UPS’s network to provide an integrated delivery solution to improve management of the order-to-delivery experience.”
Ware2Go was launched in July after an incubation process with BCG Digital Ventures, a corporate investment and incubation firm that owns a minority financial stake. The company is headquartered in Atlanta.