EASY TO BUY, HARD TO RETURN
It’s so easy to get carried away when online shopping though. Sometimes I get so excited about a great deal that I forget to check the shipping costs, and much less, the return policy.
Only after I receive an item I don’t like do I look up the return policy and realize how annoying it will be. For example, for Gilt, it costs $9.99 to return something and get your money back, or it can be free to return something but then you get merchandise credit. I don’t want to buy things I don’t need (just to spend my credit), so I opted for paying for the return.
Getting the item mailed is another hassle: print the return label, pack it up, and then drop it off at a FedEx or post office location. Also, when I tried to return a pair of shoes in the original big box (which came with more items), the FedEx person told me I would have to fill the box with extra paper so that the items don’t shift around. Or pay them to fill it for me for $5.99. -_-
It’s such a pain to return these items that we may end up keeping things we don’t like, just to avoid the process. Or we avoid online shopping. Or sometimes I only buy from places where I can return to a physical store, but that’s still troublesome.
AN OPPORTUNITY
In any case, my point is that there’s definitely room for improvement in this process. There’s been so much innovation (like Amazon Prime) with getting fast shipping, but now we need something for fast returns.
HAPPY RETURNS
This isn’t the silver bullet, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out about a service called Happy Returns.
They only work with limited brands, the ones I recognize are Everlane and Rothy’s, but here’s the process:
You buy something online from a place like Everlane. The nearest store location to me is all the way in SF, and I do not want to drive to SF just to return a shirt. Instead, you can just bring it to a Happy Returns location, several locations in the South Bay – including Stanford Shopping mall and Westfield Valley Fair mall (a lot more accessible and easier to park at).
You go to the Guest Services desk and they’ll scan it and process the return for you. I even forgot my receipt, but they found the transaction. The service was a lot quicker and more pain-free than I expected.
To see if there’s a Happy Returns location near you, you can search here. And these are the supported brands.
Anyhow, I hope they open up more Happy Returns locations and that they also have more retail partners that they support!