SWOT Analysis of UPS

Swot Analysis of UPS. United Parcel Service (UPS) is a supply chain and package delivery service multinational US company. James E. Casey was the founder of UPS, and he laid the foundation of the package delivery service company on August 28, 1907. The headquarter of the company is in Sandy Springs, Georgia, USA.

UPS’s main products and services are;

• Supply Chain Management,
• Transportation,
• Financing,
• Distribution,
• Insurance,
• Contract Logistics,
• Customs Brokerage,
• Ground Freight,
• Air Freight,
• Ocean Freight.

According to an estimate, the annual revenue of UPS in 2022 was 100.338 billion dollars, and it has increased by 3.14%. Out of which, the net income of the delivery service company was 11.548 billion dollars, and it has decreased by 10.41%. However, the company has employed over 536,000 employees to provide the delivery service worldwide.

UPS’s top competitors are;

• YRC Freight, 
• FedEx,
• Purolator,
• DHL International,
• XPO International,
• Kuehne +Nagel,
• GLS,
• CEVA Logistics,
• DB Schenker,
• Blue Dart,
• Deutsche Post,
• CH Robinson,
• Royal Mail.

Today, we’ll discuss the swot analysis of UPS. It’s going to focus on the internal and external factors impacting the world’s leading package delivery service company. Here’s the swot analysis of UPS as follows;

Strengths of UPS

Economical Price

UPS provides package delivery service at an economical price range in order to attract and attain customers. The company offers competitive prices among all the categories of its services.

Delivery on Time

Timely delivery of packages plays a key role in the functionality of UPS. In fact, the brand makes sure that its package delivery timing should be lower than the competitive companies. However, the company uses technology like GPS rerouting systems, automation, packaging scanning, and advanced communication system to achieve its purpose.

Innovation

The Chief Information Officer of UPS has recently invented a method by the name of “smart logistic network” and it won the CIO Innovation Award of Forbes. It shows the commitment of the company to innovation and technology.

Customers Service

Customer service is very important to UPS and the company provides quality and timely delivery services. Therefore, it helps the company to attract and retain customers in the long term. In fact, the customer service and customer satisfaction level of UPS is much better than FedEx or other delivery services.

SMART Network

According to an estimate, UPS has invested over 20 billion dollars in the SMART (Southeast Metro Automated Routing Terminal) logistic network system. It develops a link among all the devices within the network. The efficiency of the distribution system depends on the combination of various technological tools.

Online Tracking

UPS has the world’s most sophisticated tracking technology in the package delivery industry. According to an estimate, the company’s tracking system monitors approximately 295 million deliveries per day.

Global Brand

UPS is providing small delivery services in 220 countries, part-time definite delivery service in over 140 countries, and UPS Express Plus service in 40 countries across the world. It shows the vast global network of the company.

Brand Value

According to an estimate by Interbrand, the brand value of UPS in 2022 was 21,164 million dollars, and it has increased by 9%. However, the delivery service company ranks at the 29th position of the world’s leading brands.

Weaknesses of UPS 

Carriage Cost

When we talk about timely delivery service, then the transportation cost matters a lot. UPS usually hires 3rd party carriage services, and it incurs an extra cost for the delivery. The company spends approximately 20% of its income on transportation expenses. If it keeps on increasing, the company would lose its profitability.

Poor Safety Standards

The working conditions at UPS are very poor and unsafe. They don’t improve employees’ productivity and motivation levels. However, many UPS employees have caught the contageous disease and one of them died from it recently.

Management Issues

UPS is still using the outdated equipment and technology of the 20th century. It causes a lot of problems in the fast-moving work of the 21st century. It’s because the up-gradation of the new system would cost approximately 20 billion dollars, and it’s the company’s 5 years’ worth of net income.

Financial Issues

UPS has to spend a lot of resources to maintain a balance between the demand and delivery of the packages during the shopping season. Sometimes, the company has to spend the double amount on daily package deliveries, and it impacts the company’s profitability.

Dependence on the US market

The USA is the major market of UPS and it brings annual revenue of roundabout 58 billion dollars, and the remaining 15 billion dollars comes from international deliveries. These statistics show that the company heavily relies on the US as its main source of revenue.

Opportunities available to UPS 

7 Days Service

UPS runs its business and provides delivery service 6 days a week from Monday to Saturday. Now the company should extend its delivery service to 7 days a week and 24 hours a day by keeping in the online shopping trends and services of the competitors.

Market Expansion

UPS usually offers B2B and B2C package delivery services to the e-commerce platforms Amazon. But the trend of online shopping is increasing. Therefore, the company should expand its market by targeting directly the end consumers.

Diversification

UPS should consider diversifying its business operations into three main segments; supporting small and medium-sized businesses, global networking to defeat competitors, and B2C.

Merger & Acquisition

UPS should expand its market through mergers and acquisitions. Even though the package delivery brand has failed very badly in the European market, therefore the company should expand its market by acquiring or merging with small brands.

E-commerce

E-commerce is a growing industry among the young audience, and online shopping completely depends on the delivery service. UPS should exploit this trend and offer delivery services to various retailers.

Drone Technology

Package delivery through drones is a new concept and many companies have done it successfully. UPS is going to launch drone delivery technology. The company has already experimented with it at the Wake Med hospital campuses by moving lab samples across different buildings.

Threats UPS has to face 

Economic Recession

The worst impact of international political conflicts is the global economic recession because of the lockdown and shutdown of businesses. Resultantly, the purchasing power of ordinary working families has declined because of unemployment and limited wages. When the sales dropped, the need for package delivery services dropped automatically.

Strikes

Even though UPS’s workers haven’t gone out on strikes since 1997, the frustration and anger among them are increasing. It’s because of the pandemic, poor safety standards, and other work-related issues. If they go out on strike, it would cost the company millions of dollars.

Trade Issue

The US government has trade and political conflicts with different countries. UPS is a US package delivery service company. When the conflict rises, it increases the taxes and impacts the company’s profitability.

Dependence on Amazon

A great number of UPS’s orders come from Amazon, approximately more than 11% of the company’s revenue. If the relations change due to any number of factors, it would impact the company’s income stream. The over-dependence of the brand on one client Amazon is highly risky and not sustainable.

Competitors

Amazon, DHL, and FedEx are some of the main competitors of UPS. Their increasing sale and revenue stream poses a severe to the sale of the company’s services.

Conclusion: UPS Swot Analysis Example Company

After an in-depth study of the swot analysis of UPS, we’ve concluded that UPS is indeed the world’s leading package delivery service company. The growing competition, pandemic, poor working conditions, strikes, and management issues are some of the main challenges. UPS should utilize its resources to expand its market and business portfolio and address employees’ issues; while keeping in mind the internal strengths weaknesses; external opportunities threats of delivery and logistics swot analysis example company.