Your in-store collection programme is a customer acquisition channel.

A poster, a QR code, and twenty seconds. The customer scans, gets a reward, and you capture a verified email plus the product they brought back.

Live · 9 stores · Netherlands deployment Utilitarian dashboard with live capture rate, brand mix, scans by store and ESG impact across nine stores.
€1–3
Cost per verified email
0
Customer scans
0
Customers acquired
0
Retail partners live

Every year, customers bring thousands of used products back to the stores that sold them. Almost none of them leave a name. Almost none of those products leave a record.

And by April 2028, EU law will require 100,000–150,000 retail stores to take back textiles.

Your store can use it as a customer channel, starting today.

About Utilitarian

A platform for the take-back counter.

A customer brings back a returned item, scans a QR code on a poster, and gets a reward. You get their email, the product they brought back, and an audit-ready record of where it goes next.

All in 20 seconds. No hardware. No app. No IT project.

Already working with
INTERSPORT Runnersworld EK Sport FastFeetGrinded
How it works

One QR code. Five things happen.

The customer scans a poster. The platform handles the rest. The value flows back into your CRM.

  1. 01

    Customer brings back a returned item.

    They scan one QR code at the counter. No app, no staff training.

  2. 02

    They get a reward on the spot.

    Discount or store credit, your choice. Issued instantly. The customer leaves happy.

  3. 03

    You get their email and the product data.

    Captured with consent. Goes straight into your CRM.

  4. 04

    Product moves to recycling, with traceability.

    Full visibility on where it went. Audit-ready when ESG or EPR asks for brand-level evidence.

  5. 05

    You use that email to sell again.

    Targeted offer or loyalty reward. The collection moment paid for itself.

Why this lead is different

A different category of lead.

An in-store take-back is a different category of lead. The customer walked in. They own your product. They are in a replacement-consideration window. They handed you their email at the moment of highest intent. Field experiments published in Management Science find that transparency about a retailer's own responsibility practices lifts purchase probability by 6–46%. The take-back counter is where that transparency becomes a face-to-face transaction.

Signal In-store collection Paid social Popup Loyalty
Verified in-store visit
Known product owned
Active replacement window
Discount issued at capture
Product-level segmentation

And the volume is real. EU residents generate 16 kg of textile waste per person per year; 82% of it is post-consumer. Almost all of it leaves the retail relationship the moment it enters the home. The customers who bring it back are the customers you want.

Before vs after

Same customer. Same minute. Different outcome.

Without the platform, the customer walks in, walks out anonymous, and leaves no record. With the platform, the same interaction generates a verified email, a product record, and a sellable lead.

Without the platform
  • Product gets thrown away or shipped to a recycler with no record
  • You absorb the cost of collection and get nothing measurable back
  • The customer walks out anonymous
  • No follow-up. No data. No second sale.
With the platform
  • Product is routed to recycling with a full audit trail
  • You capture the customer's email at €1–3 per address
  • The customer leaves with a reward and a reason to come back
  • Product-level data flows into your CRM, ready for the next campaign
ROI calculator

What are you leaving on the table?

Drag the sliders. The numbers update instantly. Then book a 20-minute walkthrough with your figures.

Tell us about your stores.

113New emails per month
€54KAnnual subscriber value
€12KAnnual re-engagement margin
€1–3 In-store collection
€12+ Paid social
€18–31 Website popups

Based on industry benchmarks (DMA / Litmus 2024) and our own deployment data. Your figures will vary by store, category and average order value.

Case study · Netherlands · 2025

Nine Dutch stores. Six months. 1,000+ customers.

A six-month pilot across Runnersworld and INTERSPORT stores in the Netherlands, including the launch of The Loop circular concept store. 1,000+ customers participated. 1,500+ scans with product-level data. Email capture at €1–3 per address.

Wall of running shoes on display at Runnersworld Eindhoven, Netherlands. Runnersworld Eindhoven

5-store pilot to 9-store ongoing deployment. 1,000+ customers. 1,500+ scans. 12-month customer commitment.

Read the full case study
1,000+customers participated
€1–3cost per email
0changes to store operations
“We even see customers coming back specifically to hand in their shoes and collect their reward. The system is working very well in terms of building loyalty and repeat visits.” Rowen Slagter-Pormes, Management, Runnersworld Hoorn

What retailers are telling us.

What makes this data valuable is not just transparency, but control. For the first time, we can link in-store collection directly to operational circular outcomes.
Danny PormesCEO, FastFeetGrinded
The combination of simplicity, customer engagement and data-driven transparency is what makes this approach stand out. This is exactly the direction our industry needs.
Ron BruinenbergRetail & Expansion, EK Netherlands
The steps were self-explanatory. Customers responded positively. They are very curious about what actually happens to the shoes.
WimEntrepreneur, Intersport Ermelo
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