Dive Brief:
- After first piloting the program at the end of last year, all Staples locations will now accept Amazon returns as of July 31. Nearly half of Staples’ almost 1,000 stores currently accept Amazon returns.
- Eligible unpackaged, unlabeled Amazon items can be dropped off at the full-service shipping area inside Staples stores, according to a company press release.
- Upon completion of a return, customers will be given a Staples coupon that they can use on an assortment of products and services in-store that day.
Dive Insight:
With the addition of Staples’ locations, Amazon now has over 8,000 drop-off locations for returns in the U.S.
In-person returns can also be conducted at Kohl’s, The UPS Store and Whole Foods. Customers generate a QR code from the Amazon Return Center and then hand items to an associate without a box or label for it to be packed and shipped “at no extra cost in most cases,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to Retail Dive.
“Our goal is to make buying online as easy as possible, and we know that some items don’t always work out as planned, which is why we work hard to continue to raise the bar in offering a hassle-free returns experience to our customers,” Gopal Pillai, Amazon’s vice president of worldwide returns and recommerce, said in a statement regarding the partnership with Staples.
Amazon is introducing return kiosks to around 350 Whole Foods locations, with the goal of having consumers complete their returns in 60 seconds or less.
This spring, however, Amazon stated that customers may be charged when selecting The UPS Store for a return if a free option is within the same distance or closer to their delivery address.
“We always offer a free option for customers to return their item – if a customer would prefer to return their item at a UPS Store when there is a free option closer to their delivery address, a very small amount of customers may incur a $1 fee,” Amazon spokesperson Steve Kelly said in a statement at the time.
Soon after introducing free returns in all Kohl’s stores in 2019, the department store stated the partnership drove foot traffic to its locations.
