TORONTO, Oct. 15, 2020 /CNW/ – PUDO Inc. (“PUDO” or “the Company”) (CSE: PDO) (OTCQB: PDPTF), North America’s only carrier-neutral parcel pick-up and drop-off Network, is pleased to announce that, through its partnership with UK-based ZigZag Global (“ZigZag”), a best-in-class returns portal for online retailers, it has expanded e-commerce returns services to customers of some of the world’s largest retailers by networking the PUDOpoint Counters Network with the ZigZag returns portals in online websites. 

Increasingly, Canadians and Americans who shop both domestically and internationally online, will see PUDOpoint Counters in the returns section of online check-outs, directing them to take returns to the Counters location nearest them, for expedited return.

“We have been partnered with ZigZag Global for more than two years, slowly proving our mettle, flexibility, and ability to scale across a vast landscape,” says PUDO CEO Frank Coccia. “Now that we have reached a tipping point of sorts in terms of consistent and daily PUDOpoint Counters Network expansion, it is easier and more cost-effective for us to consolidate an escalating volume of returns parcels in benefit of ZigZag’s retail clients.”

Effective immediately, Canadian patrons of one of ZigZag’s largest American-based retail fashion clients, will see PUDOpoint Counters in the returns section of their online checkouts, enabling them to execute the cross-border returns process in one easy step.

“Our partnership with PUDOpoint Counters will provide customers of some of the world’s biggest retailers with a simpler, greener way of returning. Drop off locations are becoming an increasingly popular way of making a return and North American consumers will now have thousands of extra local businesses they can use,” says ZigZag Global Co-Founder and CEO Al Gerrie.

As e-commerce growth surges globally toward the $4T US dollar level by the end of this year, reducing returns logistics costs is critical to the health of online retail, and fashion retailers in particular. The cost of e-commerce returns topped-out at $363B US dollars, in North America alone in 2019, representing an increase of almost 50% since 2015.  For many online retailers, particularly fashion, the cost of returns can outpace gross revenues, and it is not unusual for the cost of returns to consume an unsustainable one-third of revenue.