Online shopping has been all the rage in recent years due to its convenience and sometimes cheaper price points. Aside from the implications e-commerce has caused to brick and mortar sales, digital shopping is not always as convenient as it is made out to be if your order arrives incorrectly. Logging an online return can sometimes be a tricky, admin-filled mess that could potentially incur you additional costs.
To ease the process for customers, popular department store chain, Kohl’s, has been accepting returns for items purchased on e-commerce platform Amazon for several years now. However, the company has now decided to test out discontinuing this third-party service.
Kohl’s could potentially end Amazon return service
Online stores occasionally offer their customers a “returnless refund” for smaller ticket items because the costs to transport and restock these items would end up being higher than the cost of simply writing off the product.
In October 2017, Amazon partnered with Kohl’s who would then serve as the middleman for shoppers who wanted to make a return for their online purchases. This was a truly useful service as it saved customers from the hassle of repackaging the product, labeling it correctly, and transporting it to a package carrier.
By 2019, aside from one location in Anchorage, Alaska, every other Kohl’s store began offering this third-party return service. Unfortunately, it now seems that this streamlined return process is reaching its end as Kohl’s has made the decision to test out discontinuing it at some stores.
According to a statement shared with Nexstar, the company explained that “to continue to learn from our customers, we are conducting a test in a handful of our stores where we will be temporarily discontinuing the third-party returns service. Kohl’s has a test and learn culture that helps us to evolve our store experience and stay informed about customers’ expectations and preferences.”
The duration of this testing period or the specifics of which stores will be impacted has not yet been revealed by the company.
Kohl’s employees share their opinions
Modern Retail received confirmation from Kohl’s employees that the Eau Claire; Washington, Missouri; and Leominster, Massachusetts locations will be the first locations for the rollout of the test. As of Tuesday, however, the official company website still has the Amazon return service listed as available at these stores.
When Nexstar reached out for a more detailed comment, the company did not immediately respond, however, some users on Reddit who claimed to be employees at the store shared a common sense of support for the change.
When the impacted stores were reportedly made aware of this new development, one Reddit user wrote on a post from February, “I hope they do this overall, Amazon is a headache and can’t be worth it with the amount of work and man hours it takes to do it.”
Another user added on, “All those Amazon hours would be better spent on just about anything.”
Company finances
It is no hidden fact that the retailer has been struggling in recent years and as such the company has been making various attempts at restructuring, including a major change in upper management. The company will also be closing down close to thirty underperforming stores come April. Now, this move to potentially discontinue a third-party service could also aid the company in minimizing losses.
Company CEO at the time, Tom Kingsbury said, “As we continue to build on our long-term growth strategy, it is important that we also take difficult but necessary actions to support the health and future of our business for our customers and our teams.”
Kingsbury will be retiring in May and Kohl’s will welcome the former CEO of Michael’s, Ashley Buchanan as its new CEO.