Learn how The UPS Store provides franchise support by offering cutting-edge solutions to help them better serve their customers.
Ranked as the top postal and business services franchise for the past 28 years in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Franchise 500, The UPS Store has proven to be an industry leader in the world of franchising. One of the most significant factors in the company’s success as a franchisor has been the ability to provide support to local franchisees. That franchise support comes in a variety of forms like assisting franchise owners in opening their locations, marketing their store to local consumers and providing systems and tools to help them run their business.
One of the most effective ways to support individual franchisees and help them run their business is by providing them with an extensive selection of innovative products and services. The UPS Store demonstrates a commitment to innovation that allows franchisees to offer relevant, convenient services that leverage current technologies to better serve small business owners and individual customers in their communities. These services and technologies also provide franchise owners a pipeline of fresh revenue streams to grow their business.
To understand exactly how The UPS Store supports franchisees in running their business, let’s look at some of the cutting-edge solutions available throughout the network to help franchise owners better serve small- to medium-sized businesses and individual customers.
4 Ways The UPS Store Provides Franchise Support with Cutting-edge Solutions
No. 1: Online Printing
While The UPS Store seeks to provide relevant solutions to meet the evolving needs of today’s business owners, printing has been a core offering since the very beginning. But, just because we’ve been offering printing services for what seems like forever, that doesn’t mean we’re resting on our print laurels. The UPS Store is constantly innovating to make printing easier, to produce higher quality elements and offer an even wider variety of printed materials – especially tailored for small business customers.
With that innovative spirit in mind, The UPS Store also offers online printing, which allows business owners to initiate a complete print job from their home, or their office or while on the go. Customers can upload business documents to the online platform and select from a series of options of how they want the copies to print, and The UPS Store takes care of the rest. With quick turnaround times, customers can pick up the completed prints around their schedule.
If business owners need something more complex, The UPS Store offers online printing for a variety of text-based documents including catalogs, manuals, newsletters, presentations and reports. The system can complete print jobs from a variety of formats including PDFs, Illustrator and Photoshop. Within the system, there are thousands of different templates to choose from for image-based documents like business cards, envelopes, flyers, indoor magnets, letterhead and postcards.
No. 2: Mailbox Services
Small business owners are busy running the day-to-day operations of their company. They don’t have time to wait around to sign for packages or check their mailbox multiple times a day. To make it easier for businesses to pick up their mail and packages, The UPS Store offers convenient business mailbox services.
These mailbox services aren’t just great for small business owners, they also give The UPS Store franchisees a significant competitive advantage. The UPS Store’s business mailbox services offer several advantages over a P.O. Box at the post office including:
- An actual street address rather than a P.O. Box number which projects a more professional image for small businesses.
- Access to certified packing experts to help small businesses find the right packing and shipping solutions.
- Email and text notifications to let busy business owners know when their packages have arrived, saving them time and convenience.
- Mail holding and forwarding services to safely store packages for small business owners or have items forwarded to them, wherever they are.
No. 3: Store in Store Locations
The UPS Store offers non-traditional location options, including store in store models that you might find inside another business, like pharmacies, hardware and grocery stores. These locations offer existing business owners to provide even more value and convenience to their customers, and the ability to drive foot traffic into their business, becoming that one-stop shop for consumers. The UPS Store launched the store in store concept back in the 1980s and since that time, these locations have proved to be an innovative solution to help The UPS Store franchisees and small business owners alike.
Store in Store locations support small business owners and franchisees in a couple of ways:
- They help small business owners in the community complete a variety of tasks at one location which saves them time and helps them run their businesses more efficiently.
- They help small business owners in the community become The UPS Store franchisees which allows them to offer their customers more services and provides them additional revenue streams.
- Offers a lower cost of entry for franchise owners because of the smaller footprint and ability to leverage existing staff.
No. 4: Locker Services
The UPS Store franchise owners have the freedom to modify existing services and add their own innovative touch to their location. For example, when a pair of The UPS Store franchisees took on the challenge of implementing mailbox services for Belmont University, they recognized the opportunity to provide an innovative solution to meet a specific need. The campus needed a more convenient process for students to retrieve packages. To fulfill that need, the team installed electronic lockers.
Here’s how their electronic locker service works: when students or faculty receive a package, they get a notification. At that time, they can either retrieve it at The UPS Store or pay for the locker service and pick up the package when it’s more convenient for them. If they choose to store it in the locker, the students receive a code via email. When they’re ready to pick up the package, they just enter the code and the locker pops open.
The locker service not only made it more convenient for students to receive packages, it also provided the franchisees an excellent opportunity to innovate and an additional revenue stream to grow their business.
Our Commitment to Innovation and Franchise Support
At The UPS Store, we understand that one of the best ways to support franchise owners is by continuing to provide innovative solutions that help them run their business more efficiently and effectively. Innovative products and services enable franchisees to establish themselves as a trusted, valuable resource for small business owners and individual customers. If you’re interested in franchising with The UPS Store, talk to the franchise development team to learn more about how The UPS Store products and services help businesses and individuals every day.
