Sylvia Ng is the CEO of ReturnBear, a platform for circular e-commerce logistics. With over 18 years of experience in technology, Sylvia noticed a gap in the e-commerce industry, where retail returns were costly and difficult for merchants. Now, Sylvia is on a mission to make retail returns accessible for everyone, and better for the planet. Sylvia has worked at eBay and Google, and most recently was General Manager at Shopify where she worked on products to help early-stage e-commerce merchants grow their businesses. In conjunction with her current role, Sylvia is also the founder of Amidira, a Toronto-based startup helping cancer patients with lifestyle content.

ReturnBear is a returns platform powering Canada’s first end-to-end reverse logistics network. Founded in October 2021 with a mission to make returns convenient for consumers, profitable for brands, and better for the planet. Brands using ReturnBear can offer self-serve returns to their customers, along with convenient drop-off options for immediate refunds. They can count on ReturnBear to gain visibility into returns across sales channels, save on return shipping costs, and get products back into forward supply faster.

Takeaways

Sylvia's time at UWaterloo during the dotcom bubble, working at iconic companies like Google and Shopify.

Product management roles can vary across companies and industries, with different focuses on engineering, design, or data-driven approaches.

A new concept to me "micro-forward fulfillment".

How merchants should be thinking about returns from a tech stack, logistics and consumer experience.

The environmental and time-consuming process of returns and how ReturnBear fixes that.

Expanding drop-off locations and implementing micro-forward fulfillment can improve the convenience and profitability of the return process.

Geographic expansion is driven by matching supply and demand and opening hubs in strategic locations.

Chapters

00:00 University Experience and Tech Industry

02:05 Diverse Work Experience

03:40 Working at Google

07:36 Product Role at 500px

09:20 Understanding Product Management

11:48 Product Line at Shopify

13:19 Inspiration for ReturnBear

15:56 Challenges of the Return Process

18:32 Drop-off Locations and Convenience

24:13 Improving Profitability for Merchants

29:49 Logistics Challenges and Solutions

34:07 Transition from GM to CEO

36:10 Team Composition and Culture

38:20 Micro-Forward Fulfillment

43:25 Geographic Expansion

45:19 Favorite Book and Excitement for 2024

47:39 Dealing with Hard Times

47:56 Coping with Depression and Self-Doubt

49:06 Finding Inspiration and Perspective

49:39 Connecting Consumers and Brands

49:54 Opportunities at ReturnBear

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