UPS launches a money-back guarantee to attract e-retail business
United Parcel Service Inc. wants e-retailers to think of it as their partner in marketing as well as shipping.
The Atlanta-based company today launched a guarantee program that refunds to retailers shipping charges for deliveries to any residential address if the package does not arrive on the promised day in the continental 48 states. The refund agreement is with retail shippers, who can use guaranteed delivery by a certain date as a marketing tool to entice consumers to purchase items on their web sites, UPS says. “We see it as a retailer’s tool for gaining new business,” a spokeswoman says.
But many online purchases may not be tied to the money-back shipping guarantee because the way it actually will work depends on a retailer’s own shipping policies as well as its contract terms with UPS. Although the guarantee is provided at no extra cost to shippers, some shippers, particularly larger ones like Amazon.com Inc. and Lands’ End Inc., have customized contracts with UPS or corporate shipping policies that preclude the money-back offer, the spokeswoman said.
She adds that UPS expects the money-back program to be most attractive to small- and medium-sized retailers who can offer it as a value-added service. Each retail shipper will set its own terms on how or whether it would extend the money-back offer to customers.
David Ellin, senior vice president of Innotrac Inc., an Atlanta-based fulfillment company, says shippers need to have the right systems in place to quickly file a refund claim. “A company has to decide if it’s shipping enough to make it worthwhile to get that money back,” he says. UPS allows shippers a 15-day window in which to file a claim for a refund.
UPS notes that guaranteed shipping times relate only to the time UPS actually has a package in its system. The guarantee doesn’t take effect until the shipper hands the item to UPS for delivery.
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