UPS is launching the rebranding of its Kiala consumer parcel points in Belgium to ‘UPS Access Point’ locations to complete the renaming of the European B2C network acquired in 2012.
There are currently 900 UPS Access Point/Kiala locations in Belgium and Luxemburg. The rebranding of the Kiala brand in Belgium is expected to be completed in 2016.
A similar rebranding of the Kiala locations in France (4,300), Spain (1,200), the Netherlands (700) already started last year, and is also due for completion next year.
Under the company’s B2C expansion strategy, the Kiala model has been introduced under the name of UPS Access Point in more than 13,000 locations in 9 European markets – Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, The Netherlands, the UK – as well as Mexico, Canada, and cities in the United States including Chicago and New York City. There are plans for further expansion to 20,000 locations by the end of the year.
UPS added that it is introducing more convenient offerings to online retailers and consumers in Belgium as part of the integration.
By signing up for the UPS My Choice service, consumers in Belgium can reroute or reschedule deliveries and receive delivery notifications on their mobile device. They can reroute packages to another address, reschedule deliveries for a future date or reroute packages to a UPS Access Point/Kiala location.
Consumers can also activate a vacation setting to have packages held and delivered when they return home. Consumers can also use UPS Access Point/Kiala locations to drop off labelled and pre-paid UPS parcels, including returns. Depending on what time of day a package is dropped off, it will be safely stored at the UPS Access Point/Kiala location and collected the same or the next working day by UPS.
"These additional services address the results of our 2014 Pulse of the Online Shopper survey in which consumers indicated they want more control over when and where their purchases are delivered, and a convenient returns process,” said Karl Haberkorn, managing director UPS Belgium and Luxemburg. "Additionally, it contributes to our sustainability efforts by reducing the number of return trips a driver needs to make to an address, which lowers carbon emissions."
