UPS Access Point in WooCommerce Shipments

ups-access-point

With this article, we’ll explain everything about the UPS Access Point service and how you can implement it in your WooCommerce. We’ll surely look at how you could avail of this service using the WooCommerce UPS Shipping plugin.

While running an online WooCommerce store, you are bound to face many problems, be it customer issues or shipping problems. Let’s take the case of Judy, who needs to deliver items on time to avoid refunds.


How can Customers collect their packages from a UPS Access Point?

Judy owns an online Art Gallery, based in California, U.S.A. Being a small business she currently ships across the country. Hence she has chosen UPS Shipping to help her deliver shipments to her customers. She uses shipping methods like Next Day Air, 2nd Day Air, 3 Day Select, etc. as she wants faster delivery for her customers.

But it wasn’t long before she started facing issues regarding customers opting for refunds because their shipments were not getting delivered on time. On checking, she found that the delivery was on time but the delivery timing and the work hours of most of her customers were clashing. As a result, either customers were not able to receive their packages at the address that they mentioned, or the UPS drivers were not able to reach customers at their addresses.

What Judy needs is a way for her customers can select a nearby location or a store where the package could be delivered based on their preference. Besides, that location would have to be secure and authenticated by UPS itself.


What is UPS Access Point?

The idea behind UPS Access Point is to give store owners an additional option to deliver the shipment especially when they are not comfortable with the delivery timings. Additionally, it also serves as a great option for customers to have a trusted place to take care of their orders.

ups access point

Here are some of the highlights of the Access Point service by UPS:

  • Serves as a convenient option for store owners to deliver on time.
  • Provides customers with an option to collect their orders on their behalf.
  • Has an availability of lockers so that the package remains secure and doesn’t get mixed up with other person’s package.
  • Most of the Access Points are open 24×7.
  • Customers are required to produce a valid ID to collect the package from the Access Point.

After looking at these highlights, there is no doubt that this UPS Service has not left any margin for error when it comes to shipment security.


What is UPS Access Point Economy service?

The UPS Access Point Economy service is like any other shipping service except that it ships to and from Access Points within the same country. These locations are an integral part of the wide UPS network that deals mostly with independently-owned businesses. This service offers a convenient and safe way to drop off and pick up of your packages.

With this contractual shipping service, you can save money while shipping and receiving returns directly from your business to Access Point locations within the same country. UPS’s network includes locations with weekend and evening hours to fit your customers’ schedules.

Now let us see how WooCommerce UPS Shipping plugin makes it easy for online store owners and their customers to avail of these services.


How to add a UPS Access Point Locator on the WooCommerce Cart page?

The WooCommerce UPS Shipping plugin serves as one of the best shipping solutions for WooCommerce store owners. The best part about this plugin is that it provides almost all the UPS Shipping services directly within the online store.

Similar to the UPS Pickups, online store owners can also avail the benefits of UPS Access Point using this plugin. For that, the store owners need to enable the Access Point Locator option from the Advanced Setting of the plugin. Below is the image showing the enabled Access Point Locator option in the UPS Shipping plugin settings.

ups pickup

WooCommerce Cart page

Now that the store owner has enabled this option, let’s see what happens when a customer places his order. Below is the screenshot of the customer’s cart page. As soon as he confirms his order, a new option is enabled on the payment window.

woocommerce cart page

The customer can select any one of the above nearest Access Points based on their preferences. And after selecting the access point they can place their orders successfully.

As you can see in the image below, the shipping address in the case of the order is automatically changed from the customer’s address to the address of the Access Point.

address of access point

WooCommerce Orders page

Not only that, but this change will also reflect at the back office. The following image shows a similar change that will be shown to the store owner.

woocommerce order page

Note:
The Access Point Locator will only work with the following country, territory, and city while using the Test Environment:

  • United States, Atlanta
  • Canada, Toronto
  • Germany, Neuss
  • Mexico, Mexico City

Now, this was all about locating the nearest Access Point and allowing the shipments to be delivered to the access point instead of the customer’s address. Now let us take a look at how customers can collect their package from these access points.

How to Collect your package from a UPS Access Point?

Since we already discussed how secure the UPS Access Point service is, collecting the package from there will have the same level of sophistication attached to it.

The package can be easily tracked by UPS Tracking services using the Tracking Number. That tracking number is either sent to the customers automatically or they can contact the store owners for tracking details. And as soon as the package arrives at the UPS Access Point, customers can collect it using the UPS Package Tracking Number.

Since these Access Points are open 24×7, customers can collect the package at any moment. Sometimes the authorized personnel can ask the customers to produce valid IDs, such as a driving license or any other document for verification. Other than that it is pretty convenient for customers to collect their package.


Conclusion

So this was all about the UPS Access Point service that not only helps store owners deliver their shipments but also the customers who are not able to collect their orders due to timing clashes. We discussed how to implement and use this service using the WooCommerce UPS Shipping plugin.

If you have any queries regarding the Access Point or regarding the functioning of the WooCommerce UPS Shipping plugin, feel free to Contact PluginHive Customer Support.

Happy selling!

4 thoughts on “UPS Access Point in WooCommerce Shipments

  1. christophe.n
    Negrel says:

    Hello,

    How to implement the map instead of list of access points? The shipping rates are they enable for the UAP Standard and Saver ? (Service code 14 & 15)

    Best regards

    • PluginHive Editorial Team
      PluginHive Editorial Team says:

      Hi Negrel,

      Unfortunately, we do not have maps available for UPS access points. This is an interesting feature which we would surely like to develop in future.
      We do have service code 14 available for shipping rates. However, if UPS API has 15, we can implement that as well. That should not be a problem.

  2. Katarzyna
    Katarzyna says:

    Hi,

    can I move the location of Access Point selection closer to other shipping options? I would like it to be just above or just below shipping options in checkout. By default it is located at the bottom of billing address fields. The customer may not notice it there.

    Thank you

    • PluginHive Editorial Team
      PluginHive Editorial Team says:

      Hi Katarzyna,

      Thanks for reaching out to us.

      The appearance of the shipping methods and other details in the Cart/checkout of your website are completely dependent on the “Theme” that you have selected for your website and the plugin does not have control over it.
      So if you would like to change the appearance format of your Checkout page, you will need to change the “Theme” of your website.

      Hope that helps!
      Let us know if you have any query.
      Regards,

Comments are closed.