UPS has launched Ware2Go, a new technology company and digital platform that matches available warehouse space and fulfilment services with merchants who need to get online orders to customers fast.
The new business augments the company’s suite of custom e-commerce solutions designed to support small and medium-sized companies.
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 fulfillment – storage, pick/pack fulfillment and shipping – with guaranteed two-day delivery by UPS. Because Ware2Go manages the relationships with warehouses, merchants get the service levels and pricing they might not receive on their own.
According to industry reports, the demand for warehouse space has outpaced new supply since the end of the recession. Rising rental rates, coupled with e-commerce growth, have shifted warehousing from large centralized sites to localized facilities across major markets.
Merchants who use Ware2Go sell online – primarily to other businesses – and want fast, consistent, time-in-transit for shipments. They have few distribution centers and could benefit from more warehouse space for rent in other areas of the USA.
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 so warehouse operators can fill available capacity quickly and easily without sales teams or administrative oversight. Warehouses can expand their customer network with a simplified management platform that provides visibility and invoicing.
Warehouse operators who use Ware2Go already provide small-package pick-and-pack but may not have a dedicated sales team.
Scott Price, chief transformation and strategy officer at UPS, said, “Ware2Go uses innovative online technology to match excess warehouse and fulfillment capacity with merchant demand to provide transparent inventory, order fulfillment and final delivery. We’re solving for two major problems: speed to market and efficient warehousing.
“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. 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, Georgia, USA.