United Parcel Service (UPS) is hoping to drive up loyalty and encourage shoppers to chose them for the fulfilment of online purchases with a new loyalty scheme billed as My Choice Deals.
They claim that more than 43 million global consumers will get access to as many as 500 deals as product discounts or the opportunity to donate a proportion of the price of an Amazon purchase to charity. UPS will work directly with retailers to offer discounts and deals that also benefit both sides. UPS, needless to say, hopes that the scheme will mean buyers choose them over the likes of FedEx or even Amazon’s own logistics and delivery services.
The My Choice deals are presented to customers in banner ads contained within delivery notifications. Alternatively, consumers can log into a website to see what’s on offer. The scheme was tested over the course of 2017 and will now roll out to everyone in the USA as of today.
As UPS says of the new programme:
If you are receiving something from Macy’s, you’ll have an additional deal from Macy’s right there in your alert.These are active customers receiving deliveries, so the customers who signed up for My Choice have already proven they are willing to receive goods and they are willing to order online. It is a very active group of customers that shippers want to be engaged with.
– Stu Marcus, UPS vice president of customer technology
This is an interesting idea that would be akin to someone like Royal Mail teaming up with major UK retailers to offer discounts and freebies. But there is something inelegant about the rendering of the scheme. It may well be great deal more attractive to consumers if it was displayed in the checkout flow when buying a product: “choose UPS for a further 10% off.” But obviously that may be more contentious with retailers.
