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Buying something online is easier than ever, but returning it if you don’t want to keep it is still a whole load of hassle. Today’s startup aims to make the process a breeze for consumers, while opening up a whole new sales channel for retailers. Scroll down to read all about Ante.

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Up the Ante: Making ecommerce returns easy… and lucrative

The skyrocketing growth of ecommerce in recent years has brought with it a problem - a rapidly increasing number of returns.

There are already companies like ReBound and ZigZag set up to handle returns for retailers, but the whole process is still a huge hassle for customers and merchants alike. 

London startup Ante thinks it has hit upon an approach that makes returns a sweeter experience for everyone. Central to this is a consumer-facing mobile app that acts as a hub for all their returns across all participating retailers.

Meet the ‘returns wallet’

“We're positioning ourselves as a returns wallet,” says co-founder and CEO James Dyer. “We give the customer a really effortless experience when it comes to starting their return. And then that refund gets loaded straight to their wallet on their mobile device. And at that stage, we basically become a new sales channel for the merchant.”

By adding a slick UX to the returns process, Ante hopes to insert itself into the retail sales pipeline too. Consumers can have their refund paid out in cash in 10 to 15 days, but Ante hopes they’ll be tempted into buying something else with the money, right there in its app. It’s important to note that Ante won’t be handling any of the physical logistics of actually returning items itself - its offering is all about UX and financial transactions.

The idea is consumers–having experienced a smooth, simple returns process–then have the opportunity to buy something else, initially from the same retailer and in the future any participating retailer. Ante loads the retailer’s website within its app, injecting its own tech to make payments seamless from the customer’s wallet.

Klarna for returns?

Dyer says the value for merchants is helping them hold onto customers who would otherwise just take their money and run. “You can think of it as a B2B2C proposition, similar to Klarna. Klarna has relationships on both sides of the equation that help the merchant get more sales, and they give the customer a lot more convenience. We see the returns space going a very similar way.”

Ante will generate revenue by taking a cut from sales made through its app using the customer’s returns refund balance. And once the startup allows users to spend their balance with any participating retailer, both Ante and the retailer whose goods were returned to generate that balance will get a cut of each sale.

Generating sales from lost revenue is the big B2B pitch here. “It's a win for all parties because ordinarily that refund goes to a bank account - they have no idea where that’s spent. There are payment fees associated with that, and it just goes into a black hole,” says Dyer. He sees the app becoming a useful new sales channel for retailers over time. 

“It's almost like a post-purchase marketplace. Based on your return, we'd recommend that you purchase X or Y and you can think about it as another channel for merchants to start generating sales from a customer who has expressed interest in a type of product.”

The story so far

Dyer has a background in tech, having previously worked as head of product for a video discovery startup, and co-founded blockchain education startup Litepaper and web3 news site Decrypt. He started Ante with an experienced duo: Joe Rizzo (focused on strategic partnerships) and Roberto Sousa (engineering lead).

Dyer says they started out in discovery mode earlier this year. “We learned as much as we could and we spoke to merchants, consumers… we pretended to be a store and spoke to all of the existing solutions out there, which was funny.”

Still pre-launch, Dyer says Ante is in talks with a pipeline of top UK retailers, including with a big retailer that has around 30 brands and a significant tech stack. He says they’re also talking to a large logistics company that already works with thousands of merchants, with an eye to the company upselling those merchants into using Ante as the UX layer for the returns the company is already handling for them.

“We’re going top-down, looking at who has all the returns volume, and using that to initially get out there and get a foothold.”

Ante aims to go to market early next year.

Competition, investment, and future plans

How does Ante compare to competitors like ReBound and ZigZag? Dyer says it’s all about value-add.