Dive Brief:
- UPS-owned Happy Returns and Two Boxes have inked a partnership to optimize the returns process, the companies said last week.
- The companies' integration will help warehouse operators using Two Boxes’ returns processing software handle volume coming from Happy Returns locations more efficiently while powering fast return-to-inventory times, Happy Returns said in a LinkedIn post.
- Although the partnership is in its early days, Two Boxes CEO and co-founder Kyle Bertin said in an interview with Supply Chain Dive that the company has already gone live with several Happy Returns merchants.
Dive Insight:
The Two Boxes partnership comes as UPS attempts to bolster its reverse logistics business with the acquisition of Happy Returns last year.
Beyond offering end-to-end return services, Happy Returns unlocked the ability for UPS to provide a consolidated returns solution for its enterprise retail customers. Happy Returns aggregates returns and ships them together to company Return Hubs, facilities that sort and palletize items for bulk shipping back to the merchant.
Growth in consolidated returns is projected to outpace single-piece returns over the next three years, underscoring the value of the Happy Returns acquisition, Matt Guffey, UPS chief commercial and strategy officer, said during the delivery giant's investor and analyst conference last week.
"As a UPS company, Happy Returns is expected to double its volume and revenue this year, with a large driver of that growth being synergies with The UPS Store as Return Bar locations, bringing the physical and the digital together," Guffey said.
Two Boxes focuses on helping warehouse operators make handling returns from Happy Returns or other returns merchandise authorization providers more efficient. It receives information from these providers to help 3PLs prioritize, process and track returns. In addition to Happy Returns, Two Boxes' software integrates with Shopify, AfterShip and Loop.
The Loop partnership announced in February allows warehouses using Two Boxes for returns processing to easily connect with Loop without further integration development.
"From the get-go, we really wanted to partner with Happy Returns and Loop because we saw that they were two of the leading providers, especially in the Shopify ecosystem," Bertin said.
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