Well, Halloween has come and gone, and as if by magic, every store is suddenly prepared for the winter holidays. Shelves that only recently hosted lawn tombstones and coffee mugs reading "Witch, please!" now support sparkling Christmas trees, string lights, and sweet little Santa hats you can (forcefully) put on your dog.
The winter holiday season is the most lucrative spending season of the year for many retail businesses. It makes sense that stores, brick-and-mortar or web-based, are finding creative ways to capitalize on all the extra business, which is, itself, full of mini-holidays dedicated to shopping. The phenomenon of Black Friday has stretched into the following week, starting with Small Business Saturday, Secondhand Sunday, Cyber Monday, and even Giving Tuesday.
As the season giveth, so it taketh away. With every new shopping occasion and spending opportunity created, the number of expected returned items goes up. Returns can cause a lot of problems for retailers -- by the time early-purchase holiday gifts make it back through the return process, retailers can wind up with unsellable inventory. Now it looks like Overstock (OSTK) and UPS (UPS) are working on a way to make returns more efficient and painless just in time for the holiday shopping season.
No Box? No Problem!
Overstock and UPS have made a great new update to a convenient service just ahead of what's predicted to be a booming holiday shopping season. If buyers need to return an Overstock item, they no longer need to provide the shipping package in order for UPS to schedule a pickup.
Scheduling Overstock pickups from UPS isn't anything new, but previously customers had to have the returned items packaged and labeled, ready to go. But if you need to return a gift from Overstock, a UPS driver will pop by your home and pick it up for you -- even if you don't have a shipping box.
Less Boxes and More Data Make This a Win
If the pilot is successful, everyone stands to benefit from the success. Cutting down on the use of packaging materials helps decrease the carbon footprint left by the holiday season. Moreover, boosting UPS's home-pickup feature allows the delivery service to plan routes and staff more accurately ahead of its busiest time. And once again, more efficient routes are also better for the environment.
For Overstock, partnering with a company that has access to so much shipping data can also give it a closer look at its own efficiency and customer service. According to Overstock CEO Jonathan Johnson, “Initiatives like this one with UPS can go a long way in generating repeat business from our customers.”
Overtock's main e-commerce competitor Wayfair (W) has a return policy very similar to Overstock's, but all returns have to be packaged to ship at pickup or drop-off. This partnership with UPS could go a long way in setting Overstock apart from its competitors. Even Amazon (AMZN), which has a famous free returns policy, requires you to purchase a shipping container if your aforementioned dog decides to play with the discarded holiday gift boxes.
