The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
The digital payments company bought the California-based startup for an undisclosed sum as it looks to dip its toes further into e-commerce.
“Happy Returns has made astounding progress in our mission to make returns beautiful for shoppers, retailers, and the planet over the last six years. I’m proud of our team and excited for the future as part of PayPal,” co-founder David Sobie wrote in a post on LinkedIn Thursday.
Happy Returns was founded in 2015. It gives customers an in-person location for e-commerce returns. The company has over 2,500 drop-off centres, inside stores like Paper Source, Bed Bath and Beyond, World Market and many Simon malls. Brands that work with its returns program include Everlane, Rothy’s, American Giant, Revolve, Untuckit and Draper James.
Over ten percent of retail sales were returned last year, according to the National Retail Federation, as online shopping exploded during the pandemic. Returns are a major expense in e-commerce, as shoppers expect brands to cover the cost of free shipping and returns. Brands that have used Happy Returns have said they prefer to outsource reverse logistics to the company, and stores that host Happy Returns drop-off locations say the foot traffic helps their business.
The nature of livestream transactions makes it hard to identify and weed out counterfeits and fakes despite growth of new technologies aimed at detecting infringement.
The extraordinary expectations placed on the technology have set it up for the inevitable comedown. But that’s when the real work of seeing whether it can be truly transformative begins.
Successful social media acquisitions require keeping both talent and technology in place. Neither is likely to happen in a deal for the Chinese app, writes Dave Lee.
TikTok’s first time sponsoring the glitzy event comes just as the US effectively deemed the company a national security threat under its current ownership, raising complications for Condé Nast and the gala’s other organisers.