Amazon expands physical footprint with new return policies, more

Amazon has rolled out its most extensive delivery and return program ever for 2019. With more pickup locations than ever before, Amazon is leaning on its Lockers at Whole Food locations while also introducing a total of 18,000 other physical storefronts, grocery stores, gas stations, and more to supplement its online operations. Just this morning, Amazon announced that it would be introducing dedicated product return locations around the United States, including Kohl’s, UPS, and various other retailers. We have all the details down below, so if you get stuck with a gift this year that’s just not right, there are plenty of options to retrieve some Amazon credit instead.

Delivery windows close as Amazon turns its attention to returns

As we told you a week ago, we’re down to the last few days of guaranteed delivery for Christmas at Amazon. Make sure you get those Prime-eligible orders in by Sunday, otherwise you’ll see gifts under the tree after the 25th. Amazon’s increased physical footprint and same-day delivery helps ease those concerns in major metro areas, but for more of the United States, this means guaranteed shipping windows are rapidly closing.

As we noted yesterday, there are plenty of ways to guarantee a “spoiler-free” holiday season as Amazon rolls out various delivery options. On top of Amazon Map Tracking, which leverages beacons on delivery trucks to track order statuses, there’s various pickup options at Amazon Locker and Counter locations across the United States. All worthwhile solutions to keeping your holiday gifts a secret this year.

New return policies for 2019

Amazon is introducing a handful of new return policies for 2019. After opening the ‘your orders’ page on the Amazon smartphone app, shoppers can then choose from a variety of return options. Amazon is requiring return within five miles of your delivery location, to help curb any fraud if going this route as opposed to mailing. There’s now over 5,800 physical locations in the United States where “label-free and box-free” returns are now available. Amazon notes that this will result in a significant drop in waste and other barriers that keep easy product returns from happening each year.

Additionally, the following options can be leveraged for returning unwanted holiday purchases:

• Amazon Physical Stores: Easily return eligible products at Amazon Books and Amazon 4-star stores.
• Amazon Hub locations, including Locker and Locker+ locations: To return to a Locker, customers bring their eligible items in a box or shipping envelope and use the barcode or six-digit code sent after starting a return to place the item in the slot.
• Whole Foods Market: Select Whole Foods Market locations have free no-box and no-label return drop off for eligible items with more locations being added all the time.
• Kohl’s: Return eligible items at more than 1,000 Kohl’s locations across 48 U.S. states.
• UPS: Customers can choose to drop-off eligible items using a pre-paid mailing label at more than 10,000 The UPS Store and UPS Access Point locations nationwide.

You can learn more about Amazon’s 2019 return policies on this landing page.

Source: Amazon

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