Firms make it easy to return online purchases in person
MARIA Butt’s Long Island apartment is stacked with items she wishes she hadn’t bought online but never quite got around to sending back: Carpet pads, GoPro accessories, Alexander Wang sneakers and a case of lemon madeleines that “did NOT taste good.”
But the thought of actually returning those misguided orders, she says, has always been daunting.
“There’s something about the black hole of online returns that I just can’t handle,” the 27-yearold said. “To be honest, I cannot remember the last time I packed something up and shipped it back. I will literally do anything else: Give it to my mum, donate it, sell it on eBay.”
But now, she says, she’s found a solution: Happy Returns, which operates a kiosk in a mall five minutes from her apartment, where she can take back illfitting sweaters, sweatpants and other items she’s bought from online- only retailers.
She’s been there three times in the past three weeks, and she says the service has changed the way she thinks about shopping online. “This has taken out the biggest barrier for online returns, which is the hassle of having to send something back,” said Butt, a brand manager for Unilever. “Once I get to the mall, it literally takes me a minute to get a refund.”
California start-up Happy Returns is among a growing number of companies trying to bridge the gap between online purchases and in- store returns. Amazon.com returns can now be dropped off at Kohl’s or Whole Foods stores, where employees will pack and ship them free. (Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, also owns The Washington Post.) And Wal-Mart last week announced that its revamped mobile app will make it possible for customers to return items instore in about 30 seconds.
“We know returning an item and waiting for a refund, especially for a product purchased online, isn’t always seamless,” Daniel Eckert, a senior vice president at WalMart US, said in a statement. “We’ve completely transformed the process for our customers.”
At Happy Returns, customers can bring back items from about a dozen retailers, including Everlane, Eloquii and Tradesy. The customers don’t have to pay for return shipping, and they get an instant refund.
Even as Americans do more of their shopping online, about half of consumers say they prefer to make their returns in a store, according to data from Narvar, a firm that focuses on online customer service. (Among shoppers in their 20s, that figure was higher: 55 per cent.) People may want to buy clothing, shoes, even groceries from the comfort of their homes, but when it comes to returning the ones they don’t want, many would rather do it in person.
“We saw the numbers and were blown away,” said Mark Geller, chief operating officer of Happy Returns, who co-founded the company with David Sobie. — WP-Bloomberg