ViralKaboom
Do you know Reverse Logistics: 5 Tips For E-commerce Return Success? For eCommerce brands, a 46% growth in online sales since 2020 is fantastic news. Numerous new difficulties have also been brought about, like the sharp increase in returns. 38% of UK consumers are now comfortable enough with the returns process to send back items if they’re unsatisfied with them, and a quarter of consumers return items more than once before finalizing1 their purchase.
It seems sensible that eCommerce companies are under pressure to find efficient and affordable solutions to manage the returns process. All too frequently, brands are forced to firefight in order to stay in control of a multichannel operation while also dealing with escalating return rates. There are low-cost methods for managing returns effectively, but strategic planning is necessary to implement them.
Read More: 9 Best Practices for Running a Successful Ecommerce Website
Contents
Is Charging Customers for Returns the Solution?
Today, 25% of the top brands in the UK charge customers to return things. The fitting room is brought into your bedroom when you shop online, so why should you be charged to try things on before you buy? One would contend that withholding this pleasure makes internet purchasing less enjoyable, which is a risky strategy.
Online returns cut into revenues, which is a valid issue that eCommerce needs to solve. But are there any alternatives to restricting customers’ ability to shop?
5 Tips for Managing Successful eCommerce Customer Returns
Fashion and beauty products are among the retail categories that Prolog Fulfillment offers return handling for eCommerce retailers. Through reverse logistics, we collaborate with our clients to minimize returns, effectively recycle their products, and streamline the procedure. To assist eCommerce firms who are having trouble with consumer returns, we’ve prepared five tips.
1. Understand the Reason for Returns
Knowing your clients, their purchasing patterns, and eventually, their justifications for returns can help you lower the amount of merchandise being returned. It could be that things are coming damaged, late, or with incorrect orders. You can take prompt action to address the issue if you are aware of the main causes of consumer returns.
2. Return Goods Management
How effectively do you manage returned goods? You can safeguard your profit margin and improve inventory efficiency by keeping a close eye on what happens to products once they are returned by customers.
- The condition of the clothing is examined before it is refolded, wrapped, and put back into good stock for resale.
- Items returned due to a “Change of Mind” are quality tested, packed, and placed back in good stock for resale.
- Defective or broken products are rated for resale or are internally fixed.
- End-of-life merchandise that is unable to be sold is recycled.
3. Employ Reverse Logistics
The order fulfillment process, which transports goods from a supplier to a client, is mirrored in reverse logistics. The inverse of this is to measure the value of items moving backward through the supply chain, from the customer to the supplier.
Reverse logistics is concerned with defective, damaged, or end-of-life stock that cannot be added back into the inventory for further use. This entails looking for chances to:
- Rework goods as part of a promotion.
- Include goods in the ‘end-of-season sale.
- Sell goods as part of a bundle.
4. Take a Look at Product Imagery & Descriptions
Numerous things are returned because they are different in size, shape, thickness, or color from what was anticipated. It’s important to assess how well your website is performing given that the goal is to excite clients when they open their packages.
Customers are provided with the tools to determine an object’s texture or height. Do you present size contrasts? Describe the colors in your imagery as accurately as possible. Would it be worthwhile to spend money on 360-degree rotating photos or product films to better showcase your goods?
5. Automate the Process of Returns Management
Returns were simple for team members to manage in the early stages of many eCommerce firms. The volume of returns has increased along with their business, and this might easily result in mishandled returns or delayed refunds. Both situations lead to lost clients and lost revenue.
eCommerce companies may wish to think about outsourcing returns handling if they reach the stage where they will need to make sizable investments to maintain their customer service. An eCommerce company must make a significant investment in automated returns handling. By outsourcing it to an order fulfillment business with the necessary infrastructure in place, you may increase returns efficiency, keep customers, and possibly even cut back on returns volume.
Read More: How Digital Marketing and Advertising Can Boost Your Ecommerce Business
Conclusion
The biggest online retailers are able to charge for returns because they have the financial wherewithal to cover the associated losses. It just isn’t an option for smaller and newer brands. One of the main causes of shopping cart abandonment, according to a recent BigCommerce poll, is confusion about being able to return items and get a refund quickly.
Contrarily, quick and effective eCommerce returns tend to increase consumer loyalty, secure repeat business and produce word-of-mouth referrals. Good returns for small internet firms revolve around routinely reviewing returns data to catch any issues early. To preserve consumer happiness as brands grow, it’s critical for them to recognize when it’s time to outsource returns management.
Short Bio
Researcher and digital content executive for Imagefix, Amanda Price In 2019, Amanda became a member of the Imagefix team and contributed her knowledge in social media, SEO, copywriting and blogging.
