Dive Brief:
- UPS is well-positioned to fend off threats from Amazon's competing delivery offering with high-value services like RFID labeling and time-definite delivery, CEO Carol Tomé said during a Q2 earnings call on Tuesday.
- Amazon Shipping, the e-commerce giant's delivery service, has pushed to grow its market share by offering lower shipping rates versus UPS and FedEx. However, Tomé said she is "not aware of any volume that we've lost to that competitor” in response to an analyst's question about Amazon looking to attract business from UPS customers.
- Additionally, Amazon's delivery strengths cater toward lightweight, short-distance shipments in urban areas, Tomé said. "Where we have strengths is every other place," she added. “We're going to lean into the parts of the market that we want to grow with enabling capabilities that we will do better than anybody else.”
Dive Insight:
UPS posted year-over-year revenue gains in Q2 as it battles the emergent Amazon Shipping and longtime rival FedEx.
Tomé said UPS has an edge versus competitors due to its "points of differentiation," which include capabilities in cold chain logistics, returns and end-to-end visibility. UPS also prioritizes building deep relationships with customers, particularly at the executive level, she added.
"We have over 300 high-impact executives who have relationships with our customers, relationships at the CEO level and at the CFO level," Tomé said. "It's no longer just at the chief procurement officer level or the chief supply chain officer level."
UPS' strategy focuses on retaining existing customers — the company is currently renewing shipper contracts "that go long past 2028," Tomé said — and then drawing in additional shippers through new offerings. For example, UPS now provides RFID-enabled services for shipments starting at the a customer's location. The offering covers more than 2.2 million pieces of volume per day and helped the carrier draw a "high-end jeweler" from a competitor due to the service’s end-to-end visibility, Tomé said.
"Where we have RFID at the point of origin, we have seen no churn," she said. "That's a really powerful way to grow."
UPS continues to focus on growing volume in more profitable customer segments like healthcare and small business, an effort FedEx is also undertaking. UPS’ average daily volume tied to small- and medium-sized businesses grew 4.3% year over year in Q2. Coinciding with this strategy, UPS has reduced the amount of volume it delivers for Amazon, although the e-commerce giant remains a significant customer.
"As a percent of our total revenue, Amazon made up 9%," Tomé said. "That's down about 100 basis points from a year ago, and certainly down from the peak, which was over 13% during the COVID years."
