United Parcel Service Industry Analysis: the Opportunities and Threats

UPS Industry Analysis O&T
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UPS Industry Analysis O&T
United parcel Service is an international delivery and supply chain Management Company that has headquarters in the United States. Apart from package deliveries, the company also deals with cargo airlines, trucking operations and a delivery airline. The company has headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. This essay purposes to reflect on the opportunities and threats facing the UPS industry. Additionally it will also touch on the demographic, social, cultural and technological trends and their impacts on the parcel industry.
UPS Opportunities
The United Parcel Service has experienced rapid growth in the past decade. This is attributed to the following opportunities: First and foremost, the company has various customer service groups that are solely focused on researching customer needs and serving additional customer groups. The customer solutions make a huge difference between UPS and her competitors. The group helps customers make decisions on origin of shipment, patterns of distribution, locations of different warehouses, technology and investment techniques (Macrotrends.net, 2020). The decisions basically help customers utilize their supply chains. To add on that, customers usually want companies that innovates. The company heavily invests in technology in order to connect with consumers on a different level. By doing this, the company has greatly benefitted from the explosion of e-commerce activities. The use of smartphones has enabled United Parcel service to upgrade its services from the traditional methods of ordering and delivering. Online sales from sites such as Amazon have caused a rapid increase in yearly sales. The market is also expected to keep growing while the popularity of the internet increases. It is important to note that, this boost has also positively impacted shipping and courier services. Holiday seasons such as Christmas usually mean large sales as the number of packages increases.
Thirdly, having a global presence would be an opportunity for UPS. The company has more than 33 million customers who are located in 15 countries who believe in the notion of visibility. Being able to control when their packages arrive and the time to pick it up at an alternative location is a key customer need. That being said, the company now has more than 26,000 access locations in more than 18 economies where customers can pick up their stuff. The impact of the access point expansion is seen in a 2016 report that showed 36 million packages were picked up and the numbers continue to rise (Macrotrends.net, 2020). With the increase in Access points, the company demonstrates the efficiency and cost benefits of having a nearby delivery service. Fourthly, forward and backward integration might prove to be a major opportunity for the UPS industry. Supply chain integration is a business strategy which brings as many as links of the chain as possible into a close working relationship. It ultimately increases efficiency and the stability of the business. Integration could mean partnering with firms that supply similar products. In this case, the company could pair up with DHL in order to hire delivery trucks in areas where DHL ...