The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that UPS is entering the web-to-print market.
UPS is rolling out marketing Monday to highlight a push into Web-based printing, in which clients can send documents such as business presentations to UPS retail stores via the Internet to have printed copies made. FedEx already offers online printing at its FedEx Office/Kinko's locations.
The move is already causing a stir among UPS customers who will now see their vendor as a competitor. I noticed this tweet this morning talking about the move:
We ship a lot of packages via UPS. Now I see where UPS has entered the web-to-print biz. Another vendor is now our competitor. #Print09
UPS has released an official announcement: The UPS Store Now Nation's Largest Online Printing Network
Discussion
By Bryan Yeager on Sep 14, 2009
Last time I checked, The UPS Store offers copying/printing services and has been doing so for quite a number of years. Is this really a surprise? UPS is e-enabling another part of their business, which should be a consideration for all businesses where it makes sense.
By Michael J on Sep 14, 2009
The postal services in Europe are way ahead on this. It's only a natural evolution.
By Brian Regan on Sep 16, 2009
I saw that "Tweet" and responded to it as seen below. I believe UPS is focused on shipping boxes and not print. However, print is apart of the business mix and it is something the UPS stores have been handling. UPS stores add the local flavor of being apart of the local community and like the other firms with a large local store set up will enjoy some benefits from it.
@pstrack Sort of, they have a partnership with Standard Register....
pstrack@BrianRegan Yes, but I still see their marketing plan and large adv. budget as giving buyers another low cost on-line option to consider...
By Dennis Beck on Sep 17, 2009
The real question is will they be successful? Fedex on line is not working. Fedex hides its numbers on the print business. However, collateral evidence shows that the Kinkos model is failing. The amount of web to print vendors is very,very large. What we have is more and more web printers hunting the same or fewer buyers-over capacity-over saturation. Time will tell but I doubt they will be profitable,
By Roe Pressley on Sep 17, 2009
This is not surprising, nor is it a cause for alarm for everyone in the web-to-print business. Our company, Docucopies, has been doing this for years and worked out a model that keeps our prices WELL below those you'll find walking into UPS, FedEx Office, Sir Speedy, etc. There's no reason to believe that just because they're doing it over the web, UPS will suddenly drop their printing and copying prices -- because that certainly hasn't been the case for their biggest competitor, FedEx-Kinko's / FedEx Office.
Over time, they may steadily decrease their prices to a level where they're actually competing with us at the same level, but that will probably be years away. Will they be successful? There's a good possibility, but only for the same reason Kinko's is still "successful" -- people know the name, and they don't know how much they could be saving with other companies.
By max on Sep 19, 2009
It's a pretty mediocre web site, the pricing isn't competitive, and have you ever been to one of their stores? Maybe some of them are clean and bright, but most I've seen are not even as nice as Fedex Office (was Kinkos), which doesn't exactly offer the most stellar retail experience in America.
By Henery Freedman on Sep 24, 2009
Here is something to think about. If a shipping company knows you are a printer, and they ship your printing, they also know your customers.
Discussion
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