Shopify Inc. (NYSE: SHOP) saw its shares make a handy gain on Thursday after the company announced that it would be partnering with United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS) just in time for the holidays. The companies are unveiling a platform integration that make UPS’s premium services available to small businesses.

Essentially, Shopify’s hundreds of thousands of small U.S. businesses will now receive competitive, pre-negotiated domestic and international rates that save on list prices, along with a streamlined shipping and fulfillment solution.

A few services, including UPS 2nd Day Air and UPS Ground, will help merchants increase their flexibility and speed needed to meet customer needs at a good value. Tracking and billing are also integrated into Shopify, helping reduce the time and effort it takes a business owner to keep up with the status and cost of shipments.

Jerome Roberts, Vice President of Global Product Innovation at UPS, commented:

By embedding UPS natively into Shopify’s platform, merchants will get the breadth and reliability of UPS’s services to more than 220 countries and territories, while easily managing all aspects of shipping and fulfillment in one place. Shopify merchants now have access to UPS’s industry-leading tools and can provide the same high quality services as large ecommerce companies.

Excluding Thursday’s move, Shopify shares have seen an incredible year with the stock up about 130% year to date. Over the past 52 weeks the stock is actually up closer to 145%.

Shares of Shopify were last seen trading up over 6% at $104.18, with a consensus analyst price target of $118.67 and a 52-week range of $38.69 to $123.94.

UPS traded up 1% at $114.01. The stock has a 52-week range of $102.12 to $121.75 and a consensus price target of $122.82.

Get Our Free Investment Newsletter

I have read, and agree to the Terms of Use

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.