Lillii RNB Gives Customers & Retailers Relief with Returns App

As consumers, we all share the simple pleasure of making a must-have purchase and cringe when an unsatisfied return is harder than it needs to be. Lillii RNB, a customizable retail IT product and services company for large retailers across the globe, not only assists with Point of Sale systems, but their latest mobile app, Freeing Returns, puts the ease in easy for customers ready to part with their purchase.

Since its inception, Freeing Returns has won numerous honors, including “Best in Show” at the ATDC Fintech Hackathon, runner-up of the 2016 TAG Innovation Award, an ATDC Accelerate Company, and, most recently, accepted into the LaunchPad2x Program for female entrepreneurs. Whether you’re a retailer in need of a little Lillii RNB TLC or a customer who struggles with the process, the company’s return relief is worth a read, so we caught up with Founder & CEO Barbara Jones to get the scoop. freeing_returns_barbara_jonesTell us about Lillii RNB:
Lillii RNB is a Retail IT Product and Services company specializing at the Point of Sale. We work with some of the largest retailers in the world, enabling them to customize, modify and enhance their POS systems. For our newest product, Freeing Returns, we have been accepted into the ATDC Accelerator program. Freeing Returns is the only retailer-integrated, mobile-based app that streamlines retail returns, eliminates receipts and improves the overall customer experience.

I am an SME in the Retail IT and Payments space and was one of the first 50 employees in a startup company in Austin, TX that was acquired by Oracle and our POS product was re-branded as the Oracle Retail Point of Service application that is sold to Retailers from all over the world! We have an outstanding team of advisors and board members and are ready to grow in the Atlanta fintech space.

Funding or bootstrapped?
We are currently bootstrapped right now but looking to raise a seed round of $150K for our Freeing Returns product.

Revenue Model:
Retailer integrated app that we license to retailers as well as a consumer facing application where we will collect a percentage of the merchandise return amount that is refunded to the consumer, plus other monetization opportunities around returns data, WorldPay authorization fees, and at-home return item pick-up convenience fees.

What problem are you solving?
Our goal is to free the world from the hassles of in-store merchandise returns by allowing consumers to return their items from anywhere at any time and to allow retailers to personalize the returns process and have the assurance that the returns are not likely to be fraudulent.

ReturnItem   ReturnItemToStore
Market/Industry Impact:
Retailers are racing to find solutions that allow them to be customer-centric and fulfill their omni-channel and omni-commerce needs.

How’d you get the idea for it?
The idea from Freeing Returns came from the Inaugural ATDC/Worldpay FiNOV8tors Hackathon that took place Nov 2015. Our team brainstormed and came up with the idea at the Hackathon and we won the Grand Prize for Best in Show and the Best Use of the Yodlee API’s.

Competitors:
Slice: An app that accesses a user’s email receipts to keep a record of all of the user’s purchases and receipts. If the user wants to return a product, she searches the app, quickly accesses the receipt and can even see the respective retailer’s return policy.
Differentiator – While the app is very useful, it relies solely on receipts that have been sent to the user’s email address. When physical, paper receipts (often the only option at in-store retailers) are involved, a user has to manually enter all the information from the purchase directly into the app. Because the Freeing Returns user’s purchase history is all tied to the retailer’s POS, every transaction is automatically accessible. No manual entry required.

ReturnGuru: An app that keeps track of all of a user’s purchases and returns. The user takes a picture of her physical receipt through the app, and it stores all of the pertinent information—including return policies—to be accessed at any time. The app sends automatic alerts to the user in advance of the return deadline.
Differentiator – While the app is a useful tool for tracking and organizing receipts, the user has to manually photograph her physical receipt to take advantage of the app’s functionality. Because the Freeing Returns user’s purchase history is all tied to the retailer’s POS, every transaction is automatically accessible. No manual photography is required.

How does ATL weave into your story?
We love Atlanta because it is our corporate home and for fintech companies, it is the place to be! With companies like First Data, Global Payments and Worldpay (to name a few) in town and accessible to the startup ecosystem, we are in the perfect place at the perfect time.

Hiring?
We are looking to grow our team by securing a rockstar Business Development/Sales + Marketing professional who is entrepreneurial at heart and ready to help us grow Lillii RNB Inc, so that we can deliver the Freeing Returns product to Retailers and consumers. We are also looking for Java developers who are excited to work for a startup company that is on the move in Atlanta.

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