Multinational retailer Walmart announced that it is joining hands with FedEx to offer its customers a comfortable way to return products that they have purchased online or from its stores. This collaboration is a sign of the retailer’s strategic progress to augment digital sales.
Under the new Carrier Pickup facility, purchasers who wish to return goods sold by the retailer can do so free of cost. Currently, this service has been initiated for the festive period, but reports say that the service will continue even after the holiday season ends.
Customers have to log on to the Walmart app, or go to the retailer’s website, and request for a pickup on a particular date. They will receive a label, which they need to print. A FedEx employee will pick up the package from the customer’s address. Customers who are unable to print the label can simply request for a QR code on the app or the web page. When the package reaches the FedEx collection point, the code will be scanned by an associate.
The retailer promises to initiate the refund on the same day for in-store returns and on the following day for purchases processed online “for an easy, safe and seamless,” experience according to Walmart’s vice president for strategy.
Walmart is now be in line with its competitor Amazon, who offers its online shoppers the same kind of no-cost product return services. Reports say that this new initiative could be a strategy to avert Amazon’s attempt to wriggle into Walmart’s market.
The retailer recorded an 80% increase in its e-commerce sales in the recent quarter.
