Happy Returns expanding its network of 'Return Bars' with new collaboration with FedEx

Kelly Tyko USA Today

Published 6:00 a.m. ET Oct. 20, 2020

Happy Returns also has 500-plus existing locations in the network that process the returns, including in stores, malls, campus bookstores and office buildings.

Shoppers start returns on the retailers’ websites or at HappyReturns.com and will then receive a QR code. They then bring the items and the QR code to a FedEx Office store to complete the return, which Sobie says takes less than a minute and refunds and exchanges are usually initiated immediately.

FedEx will then aggregate box-free items from multiple merchants into a single shipment, which reduces the cost for retailers and eliminates a lot of boxes and cardboard.

Happy Returns is teaming up with FedEx to offer box-free returns at most FedEx Office locations. Happy Returns

Ryan Kelly, FedEx vice president of global e-commerce marketing, FedEx started testing in Los Angeles in early October and the feedback has been positive among consumers.

Kelly said in a statement to USA TODAY that the two companies have known each other for a while and felt “by working together that we could make the returns experience better.”

Happy Returns, a Los Angeles-based logistics company, started five years ago and processed its first return before Kohl's started accepting Amazon returns, Sobie said. Happy Returns works similarly to the Kohl's-Amazon returns model in that a box isn't required.

With the Fed Ex expansion, Sobie estimates about 68% of the U.S. population will be within 10 miles of a Happy Returns location.

Happy Returns is working with many retailers that don't have physical stores and e-commerce natives.

Dressbarn closed all of its stores in 2019 ahead of former parent company Ascena Retail Group filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this July. Dressbarn has relaunched as an online-only retailer and is working with Happy Returns to take in-person returns.

The expansion will be up and running as more shoppers are planning to do more shopping this year online amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to a holiday survey from DealAid.org, 90.3% of consumers are shopping more online due to COVID-19.

Sobie said many of the other Happy Returns locations were closed amid the pandemic but if there are future closures FedEx is considered an essential retailer so will stay open and be able to process returns.

Last year, 77% of consumers planned to return some of their gifts, and nearly 20% expected to return more than half, according to a survey of 15,800 consumers by Oracle, an online retail platform. 

Contributing: Kirby Adams, Louisville Courier Journal

Original article was published here.