Idea Group & UPS Trade Direct Ocean: Leagues ahead of the competition

In the competitive promotional products business, timing is everything. With UPS Trade Direct Ocean, California-based Idea Group doesn't just deliver its customers' orders on time, it offers them the fastest delivery in the business. Here's how it works: Idea Group's custom-made sandals for promotional events are manufactured in China. Before they are imported to the United States, UPS consolidates each order into a single ocean freight shipment. Once stateside, the sandals clear customs quickly and then go to a UPS distribution center to be labeled and placed directly into the UPS network for final delivery. The entire process, from initial customer order to final delivery, takes eight weeks, compared with an industry average of 10 weeks. This gives Idea Group a competitive edge, which has helped increase sales. Trade Direct also simplifies shipping for Idea Group by providing one single point of contact and one invoice.

LUSH & UPS Trade Direct Cross Border: Making a splash in the U.S. market

When LUSH began to grow south of the border, the Canadian producer of luxury beauty products knew it needed a logistics makeover. Its shipping and customs documents were prepared manually. Products were sent by multiple shipping parties, which meant multiple customs fees and high shipping rates. Without electronic shipping forms, LUSH's customer service staff spent a lot of time tracking down order information. Now with UPS Trade Direct Cross Border, LUSH's staff can track orders easily, as UPS automates the entire shipping process. LUSH's products enter the United States as one, bulk order and incur one customs fee. Once stateside, they are separated into individual orders at a UPS facility before being sent to final U.S. destinations - at domestic shipping rates. The end result: LUSH's transportation costs have gone down, orders ship faster with fewer mistakes, the company has greater control over its inventory and staff time spent tracking orders has decreased by 90 percent.

G3 & UPS Trade Direct Cross Border: Cutting snowballing costs

For Vancouver-based G3, a manufacturer of high-end backcountry ski equipment, shipping products to a growing base of U.S. customers needed to be as seamless as shipping within Canada. So G3 turned to UPS. Now, instead of the costly, lengthy process of shipping orders to the United States one at a time, G3's products are consolidated in Canada and clear U.S. customs quickly and cost-effectively as one unit. Then, they are broken into individual orders at a stateside facility and sent by UPS to final U.S. destinations at domestic rates. The end result has been significant savings for G3, as well as better customer service. "UPS are the experts when it comes to making borders seem invisible," said G3 President Oliver Steffen.