The recent report Global Fashion Agenda details the advantages of circular fashion and the roadmap to its realization and a recent survey revealed that 45 per cent of brands have set targets to generate at least 10 per cent revenue from circular business models by 2040.
ReturnBear, a leader in end-to-end reverse logistics, is at the forefront of the circular fashion industry. Its returns processes support top brands like SKIMS, True Classic, and Sol Kyst.
Brands are trusting ReturnBear to optimize the full lifecycle of their ecommerce returns in both domestic and international markets. It combines comprehensive returns software with specialized reverse logistics services to give consumers a local return experience while reducing operating effort and logistics costs.
“We launched Canada’s first and only instant refund network and we give merchants access to over 1,000 locations across the country in locations like Staples, Cadillac Fairview, HBC stores, etc.,” said Sylvia Ng, CEO of ReturnBear.
“And we’ve also more recently begun our expansion internationally. So we now have hubs in the U.S. in Portland and in Buffalo and we recently launched in the UK just north of London and we’re launching in Australia soon, before the end of the year.
“It’s focusing on cross-border returns. If we’re talking about sustainability, cross-border right now is growing at double the rate of domestic ecommerce but cross-border is also contributing to an outsized portion of emissions because as you can imagine there’s longer distances you travel when you’re dealing with cross-border returns. So what we’re trying to do with all these locations that we’re building up is obviously to keep products local where we can when the merchants can resell and get that back into their inventory as fast as we can without needing to ship it back and forth across borders.”
The company was founded in October 2021 but it didn’t launch until mid-way through 2022.
Ng said that by keeping products locally, carbon emissions can be reduced by about 40 per cent.
“It’s a huge thing and costs obviously are just kind of directly related to that. We reduce costs by around 30 to 50 per cent depending on the cases,” she said.
“The environmentalist in me is happy to see especially the younger generations care. Unfortunately I think the data still points to the fact that as much as we care, it doesn’t trump costs not in this day and age when inflation is obviously a factor in your decision making for buying.
“A lot of what we’re seeing is that merchants, and especially the ones that we work with, have to juxtapose both and ideally you reduce costs while saving on the emissions and sustainabilities in order for you to drive sales and that is obviously what ReturnBear is trying to do and we are trying to do both at the same time.”
Ng said Europe tends to be ahead in their thinking on sustainability. There are more regulations in place regarding sustainability than in North America.
“As a Canadian I would say I tend to think that we as Canadians are very good when it comes to sustainability but I think we still have a ways to go in terms of getting the regulations in place and us as consumers pushing our regulators to get more in place so that our businesses can also align with those goals.”
ReturnBear has the support of Koru, Cadillac Fairview and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in helping brands optimize their customers’ return experience while retaining revenue and reducing shipping costs.
It helps brands achieve sustainability objectives by reducing the number of packages in transit, the distances they have to travel, and by streamlining item recovery to avoid sending products to landfills.
In a previous Retail Insider article, Ng said: “The growth of e-commerce has spotlighted one of online retail’s biggest problems: returns. More online shopping means more online returns. Returns are costly for merchants and a hassle for customers, and up until now there has been no streamlined process to make this easier for Canadians,” said. “We are on a mission to make retail returns easy and accessible for everyone. We are proud to expand ReturnBear and provide a cross-country solution for Canadian retailers and shoppers alike.”
