Happy Returns Offers New Revenue Stream to Shopify Merchants

As retailers look to limit returns during the holiday shopping season, PayPal-owned Happy Returns has debuted a new returns-based revenue stream for Shopify merchants.

Return Shopping is designed to “drive shoppers to merchants’ eCommerce storefronts within the return experience,” helping retain revenue without the accounting hurdles that come with exchanging items of different prices, according to a Tuesday (Nov. 15) press release.

“Now, more than ever, shopper re-engagement and revenue retention are key priorities for merchants,” Happy Returns Director of Product Management Sanaz Hajizadeh said in the announcement. “It’s not enough to make returns easy, merchants need to account for every dollar and bring shoppers back at every stage.”

The company says Return Shopping is a free and optional feature for Happy Returns customers using the return and exchange portal and Shopify. It can be enabled via the merchant’s Happy Returns dashboard.

“Unlike exchanges, Return Shopping keeps transactions separate: the return and the new sale,” the release said. “By creating a new order, all relevant sales and tax details will be accurately represented within Shopify where all downstream systems can ingest these as standard orders.”

Last month, Happy Returns issued “Returns Happen,” its annual consumer report, which showed half of all consumers expect to return holiday gifts this year.

One in three shoppers said they plan to “bracket” their holiday purchases — buying several items while planning to return some — and 1 in 4 said they’ve been returning a larger share of their online purchases because of economic pressures.

“Merchants are facing greater challenges with online returns heading into this holiday shopping season, including increased logistics costs due to inflation, higher return rates as more shopping moves online, and customer expectations for online returns that are easy and free,” Happy Returns Vice President David Sobie said.

The report also noted that merchants who meet consumers’ demands for convenient returns can benefit in a number of ways: they can prevent the lost sales caused by inconvenient return methods, and retain the business of customers who have experienced a frictionless return.