Walmart streamlining returns process with its app
Returning items you buy online or in a store is way too often a hassle. Walmart claims to have reinvented the returns drill to such a degree that it may even make it “a little enjoyable.”
While that may be a stretch, starting next month, the retailer plans to launch an initiative it calls Mobile Express Returns, a promise to let you use the Wal- mart mobile app to speed up and simplify returns on products purchased in Walmart stores and at Walmart.com.
Here’s how it is supposed to work. You select the item or items you want to return in the Walmart app on your phone and follow prompts in the app, indicating, for example, the reason for the return.
Later, in a Walmart store, you’ll be able to fast-track the return at customer service by jumping to a special Mobile Express Lane. You scan the QR code for your return generated through the app and hand the item you’re returning to an associate in the store.
Walmart says refunds will be credited as soon as the next day.
The new returns process starts in November for products purchased and shipped online from Walmart.com. The retailer claims the service will allow for returns in as little as 35 seconds. The service will extend to store purchases in 2018.
Stephanie Nagy, a consultant with Retail Next, says that “returns are a new front of competition for retailers,” not only to please customers who don’t want to spend a lot of time getting a different size or a refund, but to get those returned items back in stock to sell to someone else.
Eventually, you may not even have to physically visit a store.
As soon as December, Walmart also plans to give customers the option on select items to request a refund without having to go to a Walmart.
Eligible products might include shampoos or perhaps lipstick you discover is the wrong shade once you’ve tried it at home.
Walmart says you’ll be able to discard or donate such items.