Donating product will work for some brands and for others it won't. Either way you've got a killer returns app! There are many variables but in the simplest terms ask yourself the following. Are you sitting on too much inventory? Do you often have to liquidate inventory via off-price channels? Do you manage your own fulfillment or does a 3PL do this for you? What are your average retail price points and when does it not make sense to go through all the hassle and costs of bringing goods back into your warehouse. Imagine the ability to skip the returns process, do good and focus on getting your customer to repurchase from you? The Holiday season is a great example. Do you want those returns on items you heavily discounted in order to drive year end sales?

Pretty much anything you can think of, except maybe large appliances and furniture. Small to mid size items across so many categories. For example Goodwill and Salvation Army take a wide range of products whereas Soles4Souls only takes footwear and apparel. When you use our app you get to select the charity partner you want your donation eligible returns to go to.

Easy. Regardless of whether you use the donation feature we donate a portion of all sales, not profits, to the charity partners we support. Lots of companies say they donate a portion of their profits but many companies don't actually make a profit. We take it off the top because it's built into our business model. So, a portion of the money you pay us to use the app goes to them. Profit and purpose. Hey that's a great book!  Check this out. Click here.

Let's face it, returns are a reality in this new age of e-commerce. You win when you get more repurchases from customers returning product by issuing refunds quickly and re-marketing to or incentivizing them. You also win by taking a hard look at your cost of returns, including freight, handling and inventory carrying costs. Find the sweet spot where it makes more sense to donate the product, get a tax write off (double check with your accountant!) and focus on sales. When you elect to donate certain products they ship to a donation partner nearest your customer, saving money on shipping fees (think of a East Coast customer shipping it up the street versus all the way back to you on the West Coast).

As of right now we only allow goods to be sent to donation if they're tagged in your Shopify back end and the customer is only requesting that one item. If your customer requests to send back multiple items our app overrides the donation feature and has them all sent back to your warehouse.

Our app allows you to offer free return shipping or have your customer ship it back on their dime. Free and easy is usually the best method to keep customers returning to buy goods from you. Before you buck the trend I'd follow the lead of retailers like Amazon, Nordstrom, Nike etc. Just our two cents. Can we get some change?

When you create your Charity Returns account we'll ask you to enter a credit card number so every time your customer requests a return label we'll bill your card to generate it and purchase it from USPS.

We offer shipping labels through USPS.

With our app you have the option to hold all requests for approval or make this automatic so the label is emailed to them as soon as they request it. It might be good to hold for approval if you have high value items, for example.

At the moment no, but we're working on that functionality. Your best bet is to have the customer initiate the return and ask them to get it mailed ASAP. Have them place a new order with a store credit in lieu of a refund. Then as soon as you get the event notification the carrier has it, ship the new order. This means they get a refund in 1-3 days versus the average of 12 - 20 days for most brands, which is crazy. They also get to have the exchange order sent out quickly and not have to have their funds tied up across two orders. The key is to hold the exchange order until you receive the carrier event notification that it's in their system.

We are always on the lookout for new partners that make sense to work with. Right now our partners have extensive reach in the US and globally. None the less we are open to hearing from interested non-profits.

If you're an agency, freelance marketer or software platform provider that would like to partner with us just drop us a line via our contact page. We're definitely interested in speaking with you.