FedEx Corp. has launched a returns service for direct-to-consumer retailers that lets customers return packages without leaving home through the U.S. Postal Service, which will forward packages to FedEx for delivery back to the participating retailers.
Retailers using the FedEx SmartPost Returns Service ship packages with prepaid return-shipping labels that consumers can use to send packages back to the retailers. A participating retailer’s customer can arrange for pickup by the U.S.P.S. at a home or business address, or drop a package with a return label at a U.S.P.S. post office or in a U.S.P.S. drop box.
FedEx will then return the package to a destination determined by the retailer, such as the retailer’s warehouse or a facility operated by the retailer’s supplier. FedEx says the service will initially be available only to high-volume shippers.
The SmartPost Returns Service is similar to a returns service launched in a pilot program earlier this year by UPS and the U.S.P.S. That program, UPS Returns Flexible Access, is still officially in an advanced pilot phase with several retailers, though UPS expects to make it generally available early next year, a spokeswoman says.
The U.S.P.S. also provides a package-returns service through Newgistics Inc., which picks up packages at consumers’ addresses and takes them to a U.S. Postal Service mail facility for delivery to retailers.
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