Less Amazon, more profit: UPS raises forecast after cutting millions of lower-yield deliveries

Handling fewer packages for Amazon is boosting the financial outlook for UPS, as CEO Carol TomΓ© said Tuesday that the delivery giant has successfully completed its planned volume pullback and is pivoting toward higher-margin shipments.
βI want to thank all UPSers for their extraordinary work over the past 18 months as we successfully completed our Amazon glide-down and related network reconfiguration initiatives as designed,β TomΓ© said in the companyβs second quarter earnings release.
The βglide-downβ caps an 18-month UPS strategy initiated in early 2025 to scale back low-margin e-commerce shipments for Amazon. During the pandemic peak, Amazon generated over 13% of UPSβs total revenue, but executives repeatedly pointed to that low-yielding volume as βextraordinarily dilutiveβ to profit margins.
Last year, TomΓ© addressed UPSβs 30-year relationship with Amazon, saying, βThey are our largest customer, but theyβre not our most profitable customer.β
Speaking on CNBC on Tuesday, TomΓ© confirmed that Amazon now accounts for roughly 9% of UPSβs business, marking the completion of the planned pullback.
Asked about Amazonβs growing footprint as a direct logistics rival through Amazon Shipping, TomΓ© dismissed concerns that the e-commerce giant was poaching core customers, drawing a sharp distinction between network strengths.
While Amazon thrives in lightweight, short-distance urban deliveries, TomΓ© emphasized that UPS maintains an edge across βevery other placeβ β from complex B2B routes to time-sensitive cold chain logistics. By shedding roughly 2 million lower-margin Amazon packages per day, UPS says it freed up critical capacity across its ground and air networks.
UPS posted second-quarter revenue of $22.8 billion β a 7.6% increase year-over-year that topped Wall Street estimates. The courier raised its full-year 2026 revenue forecast to approximately $91.2 billion (up from $89.7 billion).
Despite the earnings beat and raised guidance, UPS shares dropped nearly 5% in early trading as investors weighed transformation costs and broader consumer spending concerns.
Amazon reports its second-quarter earnings on Thursday.