'Tis the season of holiday gift returns, and DoorDash on Wednesday introduced a new service, called Package Pickup, that allows customers to request a Dasher who will pick up and deliver their prepaid returns to local carriers such as UPS, FedEx, and USPS.
“The extensibility of our platform allows us to power all local commerce and local delivery needs, with this newest offering enabling us to meet time-starved shoppers wherever they are," said Gagan Gupta, product manager at DoorDash.
Retailers anticipated 17.9 percent of merchandise sold during the 2022 holiday shopping season to be returned, according to a recent report from the National Retail Federation.
However, online returns are actually declining along with returns overall. Data from the industry group show that online return rates fell from 20.8 percent in 2021 to 16.5 percent in 2022. This puts online return rates in line with the overall return rate.
“While oftentimes returns represent a lost sale for a retail establishment, returns can also provide recourse through positive customer engagement and, potentially, another purchase," said Mark Mathews, vice president of research development and industry analysis for NRF, in a press release.
The pickup service costs a flat fee of $5, or $3 for DashPass members, for up to five packages, but customers must first attach a prepaid shipping label or a shipping QR code to the package. Alternatively, users can send digital QR codes to DoorDash delivery people who will also pick up items with no boxes. DoorDash said the service is available to 95 percent of all Americans based on its current footprint.
The new service arrives as DoorDash struggles to rein in corporate costs. The company in November announced plans to lay off 1,250 employees. CEO Tony Xu noted that the company was "not as rigorous as we should have been in managing our team growth."
