DHL Supply Chain's acquisition of Inmar Returns leaves FedEx in the cold
DHL Supply Chain, the sleeping giant in global eCommerce fulfilment, has acquired the returns business of Inmar per a Jan 10 press release.
The acquisition includes 14 returns centres and 800 humans joining DHL SC in North America. The technology acquired includes product remarketing, recall management, and associated analytics. Inmar cleverly retained its high margin pharmaceutical reverse distribution business.
The acquisition of Inmar Returns continues a trend of acquisitions which began during the Covid-19 eCommerce and returns explosion.
Return Company
Acquisitions:
ReBound Returns (Software + Logistics) | 2021 | ReEconomy
ZigZag (Software + Logistics) | 2021 | Global Blue
Doddle (Software) | 2021 | Blue Yonder
eShopWorld (Software) | 2021 | Asendia (part of Geopost)
Happy Returns (Software + Logistics) | 2023 | UPS for $465M
Inmar Returns (Software + Logistics) | 2025 | DHL Supply Chain
DHL’s move leaves FedEx as the last of the Big 4 parcel carriers to have no major returns processing or software partnerships. While FedEx had announced a post purchase initiative under the FDX brand which would include returns, little to no information about this program is publicly available.
The question remains — what will FedEx’s strategy be? Will it sit out the returns space? Or will double down on developing a solution in-house? Or will it tie up with a major player in the space? And, very importantly, will the timing be too late?
Last players standing
Many returns companies received venture funding when eCommerce was hot. One of the biggest players that was not acquired included VC backed Returnly, which failed and was absorbed into Loop Returns. Subsequently Loop Returns faced restructuring itself this year. Perhaps Loop could be a target for FedEx.
While several smaller returns software and logistics still remain in the market, the number of scaled companies are limited. Some of the major post purchase software providers including AfterShip and ParcelPerform remain independent, but are presumably beyond the reach of many pocketbooks.
UPDATE 2025-03-30
FedEx announced a partnership with Blue Yonder in a launch of a new product FedEx Easy Returns.