FedEx is launching Easy Returns, a consolidated returns service that consumers can use to return products box-free and label-free at 3,000 FedEx Office and Kohl's locations across the US, using a QR code to complete the drop-off process. From there, FedEx consolidates the returns and delivers them back to merchants in one shipment. The technology is powered by Blue Yonder, a Scottsdale-based provider of digital supply chain management solutions.
FedEx initially launched a consolidated returns service back in 2023, and the new Easy Returns service expands on that existing network of return locations.
If that service sounds familiar, it's because UPS and Amazon have offered similar drop off return services for many years, and DHL recently entered the game. Happy Returns, the most recognized name in the game after Amazon, launched in 2015, was acquired by PayPal in 2021, and then sold to UPS in 2023. Then DHL Supply Chain acquired Inmar Supply Chain Solutions earlier this year to help grow its reverse logistics services — a solution that is in desperate need of a rebrand. Happy Returns… Easy Returns… Inmar Supply Chain Solutions. LOL.
FedEx already offers other return options, but said that its new Easy Returns service helps merchants reduce packaging expenses and the amount of returns in transit they need to track, whereas their other solutions ship packages individually.
Easy Returns is designed for lightweight items that can fit in a poly bag, such as clothing and small accessories, and the service is geared towards merchants seeing 3,000 returns or more per year.
Can we take a moment to appreciate Kohl's — whose new slogan must be “The More You Return, the More You Kohl's”?
At this point, processing returns is what Kohl's is best known for amongst many consumers. Kohl's began accepting Amazon returns in October 2017, initially piloting the program in Chicago and Los Angeles before expanding the partnership nationwide in July 2019.
Ironically, Kohl's just announced earlier this month that they are going to stop taking Amazon returns, at least temporarily, at some locations. I guess to make room for FedEx returns?