Don’t Have Time to Make That Retail Return? This Startup Wants to Do It for You
By Jim Dallke | Jan 18, 2019
In recent years, a wave of tech startups have launched with one goal in mind—to help you eliminate the mundane, everyday chores that eat up your precious free time. Tech companies can take care of your grocery shopping, clean your house, walk your dog and even fill your tank with gas.
But one new startup is tackling a specific item on your ever-evolving to-do list: retail returns.
ReturnRunners, founded a little over one year ago, makes it easy for shoppers to send back their unwanted merchandise. Through its app and web platform, the Chicago-based startup allows users to select a convenient pick-up time, and one of the company’s “runners” comes to their home and takes care of the return. ReturnRunners notifies you as the return moves through the process, and it send a confirmation receipt once the return has been completed. Customers usually see their refund within 2-3 business days.
The service, which costs $9.99 for one return and $0.99 per item after that, is designed to eliminate the hassle of printing shipping labels, boxing up items and traveling to the post office to return online or brick-and-mortar purchases.
“We want to make it as hassle free and convenient as possible for the consumer,” said founder and CEO Fara Alexander. “It’s really resonating and people are continually coming back to use our service.”
To date, Alexander says ReturnRunners has “several hundred customers” in Chicago who’ve returned “thousands” of items. ReturnRunners works with a third party company who helps staff its network of runners, and it has raised a strategic seed round of funding from goTRG, a supply chain solutions business. It’s currently only live in Chicago.
Returns are a significant piece of the retail industry. In 2017, $351 billion of all U.S. purchases were returned to online and brick-and-mortar stores, according to the National Retail Federation. And as online shopping increases in popularity, that number is expected to jump. Return rates climb to around 30% or higher for online purchases.
Returns are a major problem for the retail industry, and ReturnRunners believes its solution is not just a benefit to shoppers, but to brands as well. Easier returns create better relationships between companies and shoppers, Alexander explained, and ReturnRunners can even provide users with merchandise credit to stores where shoppers are returning items so they’re encouraged to shop there again.
ReturnRunners is also planning to incorporate its service directly into a brand’s website, so shoppers can schedule returns or exchanges directly from the retailer.
A few tech upstarts are also in the returns business, including Optoro, a startup that has raised more than $240 million in funding and offers a return optimization platform to help businesses manage their returns across the supply chain, and Happy Returns, a startup that lets customers drop off returns for free at their physical locations.
But ReturnRunners believes the convenience of an on-demand, in-person pickup will help set it apart and free up more time in a person’s day.
“Now, more than at any other point in history, people are busier with careers and family obligations than they’ve ever been in the past,” Alexander said. “Cherished personal time to get those errands done continues to dwindle.”
Article was originally published here.