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FedEx expands boxless, label-less returns

Goods can be returned with a QR code to 10,000 drop-off points

Mark Solomon
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FedEx cuts full fiscal year revenue forecast (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) said Monday that it has expanded a program in which consumers can return merchandise without a box or shipping label to more than 10,000 locations, including 2,000 FedEx Office stores.

Customers wanting to complete an in-store return of online orders can request a QR code on their mobile phone that can be scanned at drop-off points. FedEx said it will also offer contactless drop boxes where goods can be returned without any person-to-person interaction.

Competitors Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and UPS Inc. (NYSE: UPS) already offer merchandise returns without boxes and shipping labels.

Separately, a forecast published Monday by real estate services firm CBRE and returns technology provider Optoro said that 2023-2024 holiday returns could total as much as $82.1 billion. The figure is derived by taking the projected $273.7 billion in holiday e-commerce sales and applying a 30% returns rate, which is considered the high end of the range for online sales.

Optoro estimates that the cost of returns in the U.S. has increased to $149 billion, since 2018. According to CBRE and Optoro, the cost of processing returns equates to an average of 27% of the purchase, putting a significant dent in retailers’ margins.

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Mark Solomon

Formerly the Executive Editor at DC Velocity, Mark Solomon joined FreightWaves as Managing Editor of Freight Markets. Solomon began his journalistic career in 1982 at Traffic World magazine, ran his own public relations firm (Media Based Solutions) from 1994 to 2008, and has been at DC Velocity since then. Over the course of his career, Solomon has covered nearly the whole gamut of the transportation and logistics industry, including trucking, railroads, maritime, 3PLs, and regulatory issues. Solomon witnessed and narrated the rise of Amazon and XPO Logistics and the shift of the U.S. Postal Service from a mail-focused service to parcel, as well as the exponential, e-commerce-driven growth of warehouse square footage and omnichannel fulfillment.