Narvar announced the rollout of its Home Pickup service, a carrier-agnostic returns service that allows shoppers to schedule a courier to pick up return packages at their homes. More than 70 retailers, including DSW and Ann Taylor, piloted the service during the busy 2021 holiday season and reported high customer satisfaction scores and speedier return times.
Home Pickup makes it easier for shoppers to return items without having to leave home, and enables brands to restock returned products faster. The service is currently available in ten major metropolitan markets with plans to expand to about 100 in the next few months, ensuring virtually nationwide coverage.
Home Pickup is the newest in a suite of Narvar services that make returning more convenient and enhance Narvar's full-stack returns platform, consolidating end-to-end returns management for retailers. Launched in Spring 2019, Concierge allows shoppers to pick up orders and drop off returns from participating brands at a network of more than 200,000 locations globally, including Walgreens and Simon properties. Narvar also offers boxless returns with both UPS and FedEx.
"In today's highly competitive, trillion dollar retail market, customer experience wins. Smart brands are increasing their investments in technology and services that not only make shopping easier and more convenient, but also positively impact the bottom line," said Amit Sharma, founder and CEO of Narvar.
Ecommerce continues to boom, and is projected to hit $1.3 trillion by 2025. Meanwhile, shoppers are expected to return more than $761 billion in merchandise sold last year, representing about 16.6% of total U.S. retail sales. Improving that experience for shoppers while reducing the operational burden for brands remains one of the biggest opportunities in retail today.
To navigate supply chain disruptions, retailers are investing in technology that allows them to restock returned products on shelves in six days or less, instead of up to fourteen. Home Pickup allows items to be returned to the warehouse 25% faster, enabling retailers to resell inventory and give consumers their refund or credit back more quickly. A great return experience also builds loyalty: 96% of shoppers who rated their return experience well said they would shop with that retailer again.
