A Milwaukee-area startup aiming to make it easier to handle online shopping returns launched nationally Tuesday. Returns on Demand Inc. has been piloting the service locally for the last few months.
As online shopping has become increasingly popular, particularly since the pandemic, the founders of Returns on Demand saw a large market opportunity to reduce the friction of managing returns from multiple retailers that have different policies.
"I said, 'I can have somebody come and deliver a meal to me, why can't I have somebody pick up a return?'" Returns on Demand co-founder Scott Allen said. "We just started to look at all the pain points and come up with a solution."
Users can schedule a package pickup through the Returns on Demand app. The service then processes and delivers online shopping returns to UPS, FedEx and post office locations. Users can also opt to sync the app with their email accounts to have Returns on Demand organize their online purchases and track their returns.
In 2022, U.S. consumers purchased $1.29 trillion in merchandise through online sales and returned around $212 billion of it, according to the National Retail Federation.
Returns on Demand is a fee-based service, with standard pricing starting at $6.99 for up to three packages.
Allen and his co-founder Dustin Conrad have been friends since attending grade school together in Waukesha County. The pair said they've always wanted to work together and started Returns on Demand during the pandemic.
Before founding Returns on Demand, Allen was an executive at Oracle Corp. He designed the Returns on Demand app, drawing from his more than 30 years of experience in technology and logistics.
Conrad has spent the bulk of his career in health care consulting and previously was an executive with Texas-based CerpassRx. He also has experience working for startups including San Francisco's SmithRx. At Returns on Demand, he's focusing on building out the company and formulating a go-to-market strategy.
To quickly reach a national scale, Returns on Demand is partnering with a third-party driver network called Roadie which has more than 200,000 drivers that offer same-day and next-day service. UPS acquired Roadie for $586 million in October 2022.
In addition to Allen and Conrad, Returns on Demand has a head of technology and also works with contractors. It's also looking to hire for roles in marketing strategy and user acquisition, Conrad said.
The startup has already raised more than $500,000 in pre-seed funding, Allen said. He declined to share the names of investors that participated. Returns on Demand also recently started raising a seed round.
