Dive Brief:
- Happy Returns is slashing processing times at its East Coast hub after upgrading it with Geek+ robotics, according to a white paper released earlier this month.
- The UPS company tasked Geek+ this year with creating its first automated returns hub, located in Shoemakersville, Pennsylvania. The installation process took less than six months, Geek+ Sales Engineer Kyle Curry said in a video about the collaboration.
- Now, the Pennsylvania hub features 150 Geek+ S20C robots and 10 robot induction stations, per the white paper. Returns are sorted by the robots, each of which can carry up to 44 pounds, before being transported to one of nearly 200 destination chutes. Volume is then shipped back to retailers' warehouses.
Dive Insight:
With its robotics upgrade, Happy Returns is aiming to accelerate and improve the reverse logistics process for the nearly 1,000 brands for which it offers returns services. Through its consolidated returns offering, the company aggregates returns and ships them together to one of its three return hubs in Pennsylvania, California and Mississippi before transporting products back to merchants in bulk.
In the first 30 days of using Geek+ automation, Happy Returns reported an increase in process accuracy and a decline in product loss. Additionally, the median time for Happy Returns to ship items back to retailers decreased by 35%. On average, it takes Happy Returns about 14 business days to return an item to a retailer after it is dropped off at a customer return location.
"The Geek+ robots provide us with significant efficiency and flexibility, which directly benefits the brands we serve while reducing the burdens on warehouse personnel," said Kristen Hennessey, Happy Returns' senior manager for automation engineering, in the white paper.
Happy Returns is bucking the trend of a broader slowdown in companies' robotics investments. The North American robotics market saw a year-over-year decline in units ordered and revenue during the first half of 2024, according to the Association for Advancing Automation. The group's president, Jeff Burnstein, said in a news release that rising inflation and borrowing costs have pushed companies to delay spending.
Happy Returns' automation investment may have been necessary, as it is poised for rapid growth this year as a UPS company, generating more returns for its network to process. UPS Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer Matt Guffey said in March that the returns provider is expected to double its volume and revenue for 2024.
