Returns firm Rebound gets major funding to expand abroad

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 2, 2018

The way in which online retail is transforming the overall retail sector can be seen from news that a company that helps major e-tailers deal with their growing number of online returns has just received a seven-figure investment to help it expand internationally.

Rebound is a firm that helps client such as Asos, Quiz and Agent Provocateur handle the goods that shoppers are sending back, linking the retailers with their distribution companies and expecting to earn £20 million out of doing that this year. That would means its revenues would have doubled in just a year.

The Telegraph reported that Rebound has received funding from BGF, although no figure was given. However, it also said that BGF’s investments are usually between £1 million and £10 million and it tends to target an equity stake of between 10% and 20%.

Returns are one of the most important parts of any online retail operation. The need to get goods back to the company quickly and in good condition to make them available for resale, while also keeping the customer happy, is ever more important as sales volumes get bigger and bigger.

The newspaper cited Barclaycard research showing that 10% of people buy the same item of clothing in more than one size when e-shopping so returns are inevitable and their value was estimated to be £7 billion last year.

That offers a huge opportunity to companies like Rebound, which has also opened an office in Hong Kong to allow UK brands to partner with logistics firms to handle their returns in Asia. It’s also thinking about opening a similar office in the US. Its CEO told the Telegraph that it’s “going live with a new retailer at least every two weeks at the moment” and “there's no reason we can't replicate that success in America and Asia.”