Virtualization of the economy - the international express carrier UPS

UPS international express carrier, is currently a leader in electronic commerce. This company has quickly established itself in the Internet market as an express carrier of goods ordered online (from 2004). Thus, the company anticipated very early, that the logistics would become privileged mediators of electronic commerce if it grew, and took the risk to believe in this development. This business makes for an interesting to study if one keeps this in mind. In fact, UPS is a priori quite the opposite of a start-up or a virtual enterprise, since it is a business which is almost one hundred years old, which has much material of their own, and employs a large number of employees. Therefore, it is interesting to understand how such a company may have related so quickly to the development of Internet technology, which until recently, was looked down upon by a number of market leaders. Thus, in this paper, an analysis will be done on the success of UPS's strategy in electronic commerce. To do this, the paper will initially analyze the environment in which UPS, the area of mail and express freight internationally. In a second step, it will present the strategy implemented by UPS in relation to electronic commerce, focusing specifically on factors internal to the company that enabled reflection on the Internet, and the competitive advantage resulting from the implementation of this reflection. Finally, it will attempt to assess the future prospects of the market for UPS, given the many changes expected on it, as the liberalization of European postal services, or the future of electronic commerce.

The UPS business is that of a carrier express parcels and documents.This business is defined as that of an integrator, because the transactions are on an international level and require the use of hubs, which requiresgood coordination.
Thus, UPS is engaged in meta-sector owned transport and sub-sector of the mail and express freight. So then it will move forward to describe this "sub-sector", or strategic activity in which UPS operates to better understand the strategy of the company in a second part.

The interest is more in the international express industry. Thus the geographic framework can be something else internationally. It is in this context that this industry is considered. Internationally, the sector is highly concentrated and consists of three main competitors that are very similar (FedEx, DHL and UPS). It is interesting that these companies have different competitors in different countries where they operate, since they are so little competition from local carriers,or continental, if it comes to penetrate a new continent. Moreover, the major carriers offer declined an offer according to the geographic level of delivery. Thus, UPS provides services at national, European and international levels.

Shown in this part of the part is one of the challenges that companies face when they internationalize: to find the right measure between standardization and adaptation, both of which are required, one for economies of scale , the second to have a better competitive position at the local level, adapting better to the conditions of competition and local demand.

Tags: the international express carrier UPS; Virtualization of the economy ; strategy implemented by UPS