UPS launches tech firm to help merchants find warehouse space

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UPS says it has launched a technology company to help businesses selling products online to find warehouse space.

It is aimed at helping small businesses with e-commerce and getting products delivered, through a digital platform to match merchants with available warehouse space.

It’s also a way for for UPS to sell its two-day delivery services to those businesses.

The UPS company, called Ware2Go, launched in July with incubation firm BCG Digital Ventures as a minority owner.

Atlanta-based Ware2Go recruits, inspects and certifies warehouses for its network of companies that can fulfill orders. The types of warehouses that join the network already offer services to pick and pack items, but may not have salespeople to find customers to use their unused warehouse space.

By finding warehouse space to use, merchants can “position products closer to their customers without the need for researching or vetting providers, or making long-term volume and time commitments,” UPS said in a press release. “Rising rental rates, coupled with e-commerce growth, have shifted warehousing from large centralized sites to localized facilities across major markets.”

Merchants using Ware2Go are primarily selling to other businesses and are in the industrial, automotive and tech sectors, according to UPS.