Happy Returns is a Santa Monica-based provider of return and logistics solutions for retailers and customers that is striving to reduce the entire online shopping experience for retailers and their customers. Recently Happy Returns announced it has raised $11 million in the form of strategic funding from PayPal. Happy Returns and PayPal have a shared goal of making online shopping more seamless from purchase through fulfillment and possible return and exchange.
Existing investors U.S. Venture Partners and Upfront Ventures also joined this round. Including this round, Happy Returns has raised $25 million total. And the company now employs 55 people.
“Our mission is to make returns more delightful for consumers, more cost-effective for retailers, and more sustainable for the planet,” said Happy Returns co-founder and CEO David Sobie. “We’re thrilled to work with PayPal to make the process of returning more seamless for shoppers and our service more broadly available to PayPal’s large network of merchants.”
When a consumer returns online purchases, it creates both a challenge and an opportunity for retailers. And items that are purchased online and three to four times more likely to be returned than in-store purchases. The traditional online return process of packaging items individually and shipping them via carrier can be a tedious and expensive process for retailers and customers.
So what does Happy Returns do? The company’s Full Stack Returns platform is a combination of software, services, and logistics that enables retailers to offer a superior return experience including the ability to return products in-person through Happy Returns’ nationwide network of Return Bar locations as well as retailer’s own stores or by carrier. When items are returned in-person, the items are aggregated at the store of the process, which results in a return that is immediate and hassle-free for shoppers plus it is more cost-efficient for retailers. Due to the better shopping experience that Happy Returns offers, it has received a Net Promoter Score of 95 — which is among the highest customer satisfaction ratings of any consumer-related service.
“Happy Returns has reengineered the return process with the customer in mind and that brings greater cost savings and efficiencies to merchants,” added PayPal VP of North America Robert Clarkson. “Working with Happy Returns will help us learn more about how returns can decrease the friction in shopping online and how to help merchants address this growing problem.”
There are more than 350 Return Bars locations in 63 metro areas available in national retail chains such as Paper Source, Sur La Table and Cost Plus World Market. And Happy Returns’ Full Stack Returns has been adopted by brands like Rothy’s, Everlane, and Parachute Home. The volume of returns and exchanges that have been processed by Happy Returns has grown 800% year-over-year. And to support this growth, the company has opened two regional Return Hub facilities at Blandon, PA and Van Nuys, CA for processing and aggregating returns.
