Earlier this month, UPS (NYSE: UPS) introduced origin labeling capability for UPS Trade Direct Air and Ocean services. Origin labeling is designed to help small eCommerce sellers, shippers and perhaps even drop shippers speed up delivery of packages from Asia to their customers.
UPS Trade Direct Origin Labeling Solutions
With UPS Trade Direct origin labeling, importers and manufacturers can now bypass distribution centers by adding the final destination label to individual packages for immediate last mile delivery.
Many small eCommerce businesses already source their products overseas to sell competitively on some of the largest eCommerce sites, such as Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY). For those retailers that sell products manufactured overseas, a big challenge for them has been shifting customs regulations around the world to make international eCommerce possible and to keep prices low.
“This investment in our technology will help keep shippers fully compliant with destination rules and regulations,” said Cindy Miller, president of UPS Global Freight Forwarding, in a post announcing origin labeling on the official UPS pressroom blog.
Availability of UPS Trade Direct Origin Labeling
UPS Trade Direct origin labeling capability is available to all UPS customers, but initially only applicable to select Asia to US trade lanes. The giant shipping company has, however, said further capability expansion will be rolled out in the near future according to market demand.
“Labeling at origin reduces transit time by roughly one day and allows customers to use in-transit goods as a ‘floating warehouse’ during transoceanic voyages,” said Keith Andrey, Global Freight Forwarding vice president of Air and Ocean Products, who hailed labeling as flexible to both importers and exporters.
Image: UPS