Celebrating the holidays is a joyous event. Family, friends, food and gifts. Yet inevitably, returning gifts has become part of the routine during the holidays. In fact, January 3 is the top shipping day for holiday returns at UPS. Just as others created Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we’re creating a day too that’s dedicated to returns – National Returns Day.

Let’s face it. Returning gifts can feel like a hassle … collecting gift receipts, driving around town, standing in line at the store. Holiday returns are daunting, but they don’t have to be.

With our Twitter party, #HolidayReturns, we hope to deliver a bit of sanity and some clever ideas to help take the hassle out of holiday returns. Joining us as the party moderator is blogger Melissa Dawn Lierman (@TimeOutMom) and a team of panelists. UPS compensated Melissa and the panelists for their participation. To generate smart ideas and tips throughout the day, we’re hosting two parties.

Party 1 takes place from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET. If you’re getting ready to hit the mall (or The UPS Store) with your gift returns, join Melissa and our panelists for tips to make gift returns less stressful.

Party 2 takes place from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET. We’ll chat about gift returns’ success stories and ideas to take the hassle out of gift returns throughout the year.

Along with great ideas, our #HolidayReturns parties will feature prizes. To participate in the chat and prize giveaways, include the party hashtag #HolidayReturns in your tweets. Along with three $25 gift cards to The UPS Store awarded every 15 minutes, we’ll give away a $100 gift card to Zappos – who just happens to have a great returns policy – at the end of each party. Read more for complete rules on the prize drawings for the parties: afternoon party rules, evening party rules.

At this week’s Internet Retailer Conference, UPS is hosting a Technology Theater on one of the hottest topics our retail customers are talking about: free shipping. Sucharita Mulpuru, one of the retail industry’s leading research analysts in eCommerce, will provide key insights on when and how to best execute profitable shipping promotions. 

Free shipping is widely used by e-retailers and can be effective as a marketing and promotional tool to increase sales. According to a recent study by the National Retail Federation, consumers’ number one purchase incentive is free shipping and it’s a motivating factor in where they shop. UPS customer L.L. Bean recently made headlines when it dropped most of its shipping fees for orders in the U.S. and Canada. The outdoor clothing and catalog retailer joins Zappos in offering no-strings-attached free shipping both ways.

With a steady increase of online sales, consumers often expect free and low-cost shipping options from retailers. According to comScore, nearly half of online orders in the first quarter of this year were delivered free of charge, and ¾ of consumers said they abandon retailers at checkout if the shipping isn’t free.

Creating a free or promotional shipping strategy can be beneficial, but how can you determine what approach is right? There are many predictable and some unpredictable costs associated with shipping promotions. The answer lies in your company’s logistics strategy, which is the foundation for creating competitive advantages with your shipping.

In a recent study commissioned by UPS, Forrester Research interviewed 13 Web retailers of varying sizes about their experiences with free shipping offers. Forrester’s study “Smarter Strategies on Free Shipping,” found strong evidence that free shipping attracts new customers and helps to improve customer loyalty. Customers are also less likely to abandon their shopping carts and buy more.

For those e-retailers that don’t think free shipping is a viable option, the report offers a few strategies to remain competitive:

Flat rate shipping: Retailers reported this is an extremely effective strategy. Companies send those orders UPS ground to keep costs under control.   

Logistics: At UPS we know logistics matters. Retailers with multiple or centrally-located distribution centers say shipping promotions are able to drive incremental sales while minimizing the impact to their bottom line.

Shipping Promotions on Key Items: By offering free shipping only on key items that meet a certain margin, retailers can mitigate some of the expenses associated with free shipping. This type of promotion can be an effective way to incent some incremental purchases.    

VIP Shipping Programs: Offer customers the option of paying a one-time fee in order to receive free services.

Forrester researchers also discovered free shipping is not a “one size fits all” business strategy and the success of shipping promotions depends on a variety of factors including product value, supply chain design and current market conditions. Shipping promotions can become costly if it negatively impacts the customer experience or additional IT services are required to support the promotion. Small business owners know consumers would buy more if they offer free shipping; however, many cannot afford to absorb all of the cost.

The theme for this year’s IR conference, the world’s largest eCommerce show is “eCommerce Shifts into Overdrive,” and UPS will be driving the business of online retailers into the fast lane with shipping strategies that work.

“Make ‘wow’ a verb,” urged Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO, during a recent visit to the UPS Corporate Office.  

Hsieh (pronounced shay) is the CEO of the wildly successful online shoe and clothing retailer Zappos, which has been “wowing” customers and employees for years as he’s helped transform the company from almost no sales to over $1 billion in gross revenue annually — all while making Fortune magazine’s annual “Best Companies to Work For” list.

Hsieh’s appearance was presented by the UPS Diversity Leadership Development (DLD) Committee — formed as part of an initiative to help UPS attract, retain and develop diverse employees in all levels of management. His message of how to create value for customers offers something everyone can learn from.

The 37-year-old says he’s not in the online retail business but rather the business of delivering happiness.

“Customer service shouldn’t just be the responsibility of the department — it should be the entire company’s responsibility,” said Hsieh, whose company has a 365-day return policy for “those who have trouble committing.”

Testing an employee’s loyalty from Day One, the company also pays new hires $4,000. To quit.

Aligning the stars

Hsieh said he’s learned that successful companies have two things in common: a strong culture and a vision with a higher purpose beyond profits.

“If you can align an entire organization around your core values, and then inspire employees who have personal values like that of the company’s, the profits will come.”

His bestselling book, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose, shows how a very different kind of corporate culture is a powerful model for achieving success and happiness.

In the book, Hsieh talks about how UPS helps Zappos wow customers.

“Having our warehouse located just 15 minutes away from the UPS Worldport hub means that a lot of customers order as late as midnight in the eastern United States, and are surprised when their orders show up on their doorstep eight hours later. This creates a wow experience, which our customers remember for a very long time – and tell their friends and family.”

The value of values

Hsieh also discussed Zappos’ 10 core values, which are explained in detail on the company’s website.

1. Deliver wow through service
2. Embrace and drive change
3. Create fun and a little weirdness
4. Be adventurous, creative and open-minded
5. Pursue growth and learning
6. Build open and honest relationships with communication
7. Build a positive team and family spirit
8. Do more with less
9. Be passionate and determined
10. Be humble

“In the end, we’re a service company that just happens to sell shoes,” concluded Hsieh. “We are not an average company, our service is not average, and we don’t want our people to be average. We expect every employee to deliver wow.”

Creating a culture where happiness thrives has helped Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh achieve personal and business success. Tony shares the lessons he’s learned in his book, “Delivering Happiness,” which debuted #1 on the New York Times Best Seller’s list. As part of the book’s launch, Tony and his team are on a 26-city, three-month cross-country bus tour to share stories that inspire and to also be inspired by others. A key focus of the tour is promoting volunteerism and community organizations.

At UPS, we’re proud of our long-standing relationship with Tony, Zappos and the Delivering Happiness team. And we also take pride in our commitment to community service – last year UPSers and their families volunteered 1.2 million hours.

When we learned about Tony’s Delivering Happiness Bus Tour, well … we got on the bus. How?  By providing logistics support at local events hosted by the Delivering Happiness team. UPSers are helping to deliver food and beverages, set up chairs and organize volunteers at event sites. And pitching in wherever an extra hand is needed.

At his stop in Chicago, Tony talked with UPS’s Tony Orrico about logistics and the importance of company culture.

In the 1970 stop-motion Christmas classic “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town,” Kris Kingle saves the day by singing the song “One Foot In Front of the Other” and saving Sombertown from the evil Winter Warlock and Burgermeister Meisterburger. Quite literally, that song is music to the ears of Zappos, the e-retailer best known for selling shoes on the Internet.

Of course, there is no stop motion during the busy holiday shipping season for Zappos and UPS, when the two businesses work together like Santa and his elves to serve millions of customers from Zappos’ end-of-runway location near Worldport.