The UPS Store offers franchise opportunities backed by a nationally renowned brand name and 40 years of franchise experience. There are many benefits to opening a franchise in our network and now there is another – a fresh, new look with a contemporary feel.
To improve the in-center experience, we tapped real customers for their feedback via interviews and surveys and assessed locations across the country. An inspired cross-functional team, including The UPS Store franchise owners, then set out to redesign and revitalize both the brand and the customer experience. The result is a brand new store layout that reflects the needs of The UPS Store franchise operators while offering flexibility for a variety of store types and footprints. The enhanced transparency also helps boost customer confidence. We’re excited to unveil a design that highlights the myriad of services our stores provide beyond packing and shipping. Here’s a look at what the new concept has to offer and why it’s an attractive option if you’re considering opening a franchise.
Goals and Solutions
Our refreshed design features a versatile space that reinforces the extensive list of services The UPS Store provides while elevating the experience for customers and franchisees alike. The new store concept highlights services beyond our core packing and shipping competency. The fresh, efficient store design leverages a purposeful aesthetic to provide more ways to deliver in a practical, workshop-inspired setting.
These modifications were based on insights gathered through research aimed at better understanding the in-store customer journey. The research revealed that The UPS Store customers desire transparency; this ultimately became the central theme to the store redesign. The new layout of The UPS Store locations creates a more open, honest and trusted feel that allows customers to see the care that goes into the work of store associates.
Design Features
The color scheme and materials used throughout the design were chosen to communicate warmth, trust and competency, embodying the notion that “this is where work happens.” Inspiration for the store design stems from a contemporary and practical workshop, with factory-like cues and light-industrial design elements that is inviting to customers.
The UPS Store franchise owners will enjoy serving their customers in a space that is thoughtful, helpful and trustworthy. Counters are neat and organized, work areas are open and team members are visible and ready to assist. The entry features an open area between the service counter and print consult center, allowing customers to easily navigate the diverse store offering.
The front entry can also now be enclosed, separating it from the rest of the center. This allows customers to access smart lockers 24/7 for convenient package pick-up when their schedule allows, even if that is after normal business hours.
The color scheme has also been revitalized by incorporating colors from the previous generation of centers in a brighter palette. The vibrant colors refresh the space and feel inviting against the wood finish flooring in the retail area. Industrial lighting and concrete finish flooring in the workshop areas create an intuitive transition.
Store Planning and Functionality
The new layout provides increased efficiency with flexible, modular and functional design. Stores are now conceptually divided into three zones.
- Zone 1 is accessible 24-hours a day. A security gate restricts access to the rest of the store after hours. This front-of-store area houses mailboxes, smart lockers and a self-serve printer allowing customers to get what they need, any time of day.
- Zone 2 is the service area where customers interact with associates during business hours for packing, shipping or printing services.
- Zone 3 is the back-of-center workshop where associates pack, ship and handle print production.
Printing equipment is gathered together in one area for increased efficiency. Franchisee Donna Evans says, “My store is a very busy print store and having places to have our employees set up the print jobs and to have them be able to lay them out properly without being on the front counter where customers do business is great. This design shows you how you can move things around so that you can adjust it to any particular job that you’re going to need to do, and that was extremely important to me.”
There’s also now a dedicated space where customers can sit comfortably and work seamlessly with an associate to create their print project. The UPS Store franchise owner Jerome Thomas explains, “At the consultation desk is where we can do notary as well as print design. Where customers are able to sit down, they can take a look at what we’re doing with them as far as service, but also for looking at the print design. They can take a look at the monitor and at some of the features that we have inside the books, so it kind of gives them a more comfortable atmosphere that you’re sitting down consulting with someone in this new design about the products that we have.”
Open sightlines into the back of the workshop provide transparency and create an opportunity to demonstrate the expertise of The UPS Store, showing we stand behind our promises and guarantees as a brand. Franchisee Dennis Stein agrees, “Another thing I really like about the store is that it’s visible into the back of the store.” Franchisee Melissa Thomas adds, “It gets customers asking questions. And it helps us have conversations with them about how we can help them, help their business grow.”
The End Result
The UPS Store is proud to offer our franchisees a revitalized store design concept that guides customers to dedicated service areas that offer collaboration, quickness and privacy when needed.
Gary Williams Jr., Area Franchisee, Southern California, says, “When you take a look through the lens of the customer, the experience is completely different than what we have today. Starting with right when you walk up to the front of the store, the doors open for you. On the right-hand side you have signage talking about our mailbox service. Above our front counters you now have a digital menu board. For years as franchisees we’ve all been asking for an improved-upon menu board and I think we hit a homerun.”
And most importantly, customers love it, too.
If you’re interested in bringing essential business services to your community in a refreshed, redesigned The UPS Store franchise of your own, reach out to our franchise development team or visit our website to learn more.
