User:Spncrinc/sandbox/HappyReturnsCompany Draft5

First Submission

Happy Returns is a Los Angeles-based software and reverse logistics company that enables box-free, label-free, in-person returns for online merchants at third-party Return Bar locations. Happy Returns launched their Return Bar service in April 2016. Eighteen months later, Amazon developed a similar program that allows its shoppers to drop off their returns at Kohl’s stores. Happy Returns facilitates returns for hundreds of brands — both brick-and-mortar and direct-to-consumer merchants — including Levi's, Revolve, Rothy%27s, Everlane, Steve Madden , Gymshark , and DressBarn. Happy Returns has location partnerships with numerous national retailers such as FedEx, Cost Plus World Market and Paper Source to enable online consumers to return items at more than 2,600 Return Bar locations across the United States. Consumers can find Return Bar locations by searching on the Happy Returns website. Happy Returns aggregates and bulk ships returns inside reusable packaging from their Return Bar locations to their warehouse hubs — where returns are sorted, processed, and dispositioned — and then shipped back to merchant warehouses. The software works with many e-commerce platforms and Happy Returns has a public app available in the Shopify App Store.

History
Co-founders David Sobie and Mark Geller met at NordstromRack.com/HauteLook, creating and launching the hallmark Return to Rack program, where shoppers return online purchases to physical stores. Building on that success, Sobie and Geller founded Happy Returns in July 2015 to give all consumers the option to return items without a box or label at designated third-party locations such as traditional retailers, shopping malls, campus bookstores, and office buildings. Sobie and Geller closed their seed funding round in August 2015, raising $1.9 million from investors including Upfront Ventures, Brilliant Ventures, and Lowercase Capital. In April 2016, Happy Returns opened its first Return Bar location. In April 2019, PayPal Ventures (the fundraising arm of PayPal) lead a fundraising round of $11 million with existing investors U.S. Venture Partners and Upfront Ventures. Since its founding in 2015, Happy Returns has raised a total of $25 million. Gartner named Happy Returns a 2020 Cool Vendor in Retail in May 2020. In June 2021, Happy Returns was acquired by PayPal to expand their post-purchase product offering.

Pioneering Ideas
Happy Returns launched third-party box-free, label-free returns in April 2016. Over a year later, Amazon developed a similar program that allows its shoppers to drop off returns at Kohl’s. Happy Returns accepts box-free returns at a nationwide network of Return Bars and ships them in bulk in reusable packaging to nearby hubs for routing to the most efficient destinations. The box-free return model reduces the total distance traveled per return as well as cardboard used while in transit. Consumers can receive their refunds more quickly because they don't need to take the time to package returns, print and affix labels, or wait for returns to travel to their destinations by mail.

Sustainability
Happy Returns offers cardboard-free returns, where returned items are commingled to bulk-ship inside reusable packaging from their Return Bar locations to Happy Returns’ warehouse hubs — where they are sorted, dispositioned, and processed — and then shipped back to retailer warehouses. By replacing cardboard boxes with reusable packaging, Happy Returns customers reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 120,000 lbs for every one million returns.