You may even get a refund on select items without visiting the store
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Returning items you buy online or in a store is way too often a hassle. Walmart claims to have reinvented the returns drill to such a degree that it may even make it “a little enjoyable.”
While that may be a stretch, starting next month, the retailer plans to launch an initiative it calls Mobile Express Returns, a promise to let you use the Walmart mobile app to speed up and simplify returns on products purchased in Walmart stores and at Walmart.com.
Here’s how it is supposed to work. You select the item or items you want to return in the Walmart app on your phone and follow the prompts inside the app, indicating, for example, the reason for the return.
Later, in a Walmart store, you’ll be able to fast track the return at customer service by jumping to a special Mobile Express Lane set up for this purpose. You scan the QR code for your return that was generated through the app and hand the item you’re returning to an associate in the store.
Walmart says refunds will be credited as soon as the next day.
The new returns process starts in November for products purchased and shipped online from Walmart.com. It will be extended to store purchases in 2018.
The retailer says 90% of Americans live within ten miles of a Walmart store, of which there are more than 4,700.
But you may not even have to physically visit a store. As soon as December, Walmart also plans to give customers the option on certain items to request a refund without having to go to a Walmart. Eligible products might include shampoos or perhaps lipstick you discover is the wrong shade once you’ve tried it at home. Walmart says you’ll be able to discard or donate such items.
In a press release, Walmart senior vice president Daniel Eckert, says, “We know that returning an item and waiting for a refund, especially for a product purchased online, isn’t always seamless, so we’ve completely transformed the process for our customers – whether they are shopping in stores or at Walmart.com.»
For its part, rival Amazon recently made it easier for customers in Chicago and Los Angeles to return eligible items by bringing them to select Kohl’s stores in those cities.
Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow USA TODAY Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig on Twitter
