In an effort to generate revenue directly through the products it delivers to consumers, the United Parcel Service (UPS) is launching a loyalty discount program. UPS My Choice Deals offers discounts on products ranging from tires to luxury clothes, Reuters reported.
Through the program, more than 43 million consumers can access 500 deals, which include offers such as 20 percent off Neiman Marcus clothes or 10 percent off Goodyear tires. The deals can be tied to shipments that customers receive.
“If you are receiving something from Macy’s, you’ll have an additional deal from Macy’s right there in your alert,” Stu Marcus, UPS vice president of customer technology marketing, told Reuters.
Through the program, UPS is seeking to grow its business while creating brand loyalty for merchants. And the company is hoping retailers will choose its service over FedEx or even Amazon.
The news comes as competition in the shipping business is heating up. Amazon is launching its own delivery service, which could create competition for UPS and FedEx. Through “Shipping With Amazon,” the eCommerce retailer will reportedly pick up packages from businesses and deliver them to their customers, The Wall Street Journal reported.
While Amazon will soon start offering the service in Los Angeles to the company’s third-party sellers, it plans to eventually expand the service to additional cities and businesses beyond its own sellers. While the eCommerce retailer has not made the pricing for its new service public, it is planning to charge less than UPS and FedEx.
In response to the potential competition, a UPS spokesman told the WSJ that the company continues to support Amazon — and other clients — but would not comment further. FedEx didn’t immediately respond to the WSJ.
Already, Amazon delivers a portion of its own orders in about 40 cities in the U.S. With the new service, the company expects to begin picking up packages from warehouses and delivering them when it can. Otherwise, the U.S. Postal Service will handle Amazon’s last-mile deliveries.
