Welcome to The Return’s API documentation for integrating with our dropoff network. These docs will walk you through what a typical integration with our API looks like. These steps work for most of our customers, but we have also recognize that every business is different and we’re happy to customize the API and add new endpoints and webhooks to meet your specific needs.
Background
Before planning an integration it’s important to understand what The Return does (and what we don’t do). The Return is a dropoff and logistics network to reduce cost, friction, and time to complete returns. We do that through our nation-wide network of dropoff locations. The Return is not a consumer-facing Return Management Software (RMS). That means that we don’t have an interface for consumers to interact with (to start the return process, for example) and we don’t send communications to customers (such as tracking update emails). Instead, we supply you with the tools you need to supply that information to consumers. Our dropoff points are similar in a lot of ways to Amazon drop-off points. When you start an Amazon return, you’re on Amazon’s website, and they’ll find and direct you to the dropoff points nearest to you. Dropoff points include everything from UPS stores to Staples and Whole Foods locations. After you get the QR code, you walk into a dropoff point, scan the code, and leave your package. Any tracking of your package from there on happens on Amazon’s website. The Return is very similar to a Whole Foods drop-off point in the sense that Whole Foods doesn’t help you start the return process, doesn’t have their own location finder, doesn’t generate the QR code, and doesn’t help you track your package after it’s been dropped off. Their only interaction with the customer is the few moments when the customer is in the store dropping off their package.Example Workflow
A typical workflow for a customer to return an item might look like this:- The user starts the return process on your website
- Your website calls our location finder endpoint to find the nearest dropoff points to the user’s address and displays them to the user
- The user selects one of The Return’s dropoff points and the data about their order and items is sent to our order endpoint
- Your website generates a QR code for the user that embeds the ID of the customer’s return (sometimes called an RMA)
- The customer walks in to the dropoff point, the QR Code is scanned at the counter, and the package is dropped off
- Your system uses our tracking endpoint and webhook to track the status of the return and relay that information to the customer
Get Started with the API
View the complete API reference documentation