Gearing up for post-Christmas returns

With Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas deliveries dominating the retail industry’s headlines, it’s easy to overlook the fact that the post-Christmas period can actually prove equally challenging for online retailers.

By Markus Schmücker, Managing Director, Supply Chain Solutions at arvato UK & Ireland

Returns are often the most complex part of any online retailer’s supply chain strategy, with brands needing to balance two key priorities: encouraging customer loyalty – by making it easy for customers to return goods and be reimbursed – and ensuring that non-faulty returned stock is processed and available for resale quickly.

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Here are some of the key considerations for getting it right this season:

Remember – convenience is king

Collection points are becoming increasingly popular for a reason – convenience. If you’re offering this flexibility for deliveries, there’s no reason it shouldn’t also apply to returns.

A recent study of online fulfilment requirements by IMRG found that 80% of respondents believed that a collection service for returns would be appealing and 88% of them would arrange this online.

Allowing a range of options, from drop points and in-store deposits to free postal returns, will help encourage loyalty. The best examples allow customers to go online, select where they want to drop off their return, print off a barcode and take it to the collection point.

This also has the added benefit of alerting your returns centre in advance about what is coming back and why, giving you quicker visibility of stock levels.

Integrate technology and people

Regardless of how they’ve been returned, all products should run through the same integrated returns process: stock needs to be assessed, and refunds made to the customer if applicable. Depending on their condition, products can then be repackaged, refurbished, and returned to sale stock or shipped back to the manufacturer.

Using technology to reconcile returns against outbound orders will help to speed this up. For example, some inventory systems will allow you to scan a product code to bring up a picture of the item together with corresponding instructions.

This allows staff to quickly assess the product and make a decision – has it been returned with its accessories, are there any signs of damage, can it be returned to stock or should it be passed on for further inspection?

Naturally you’ll need to ensure there are enough trained people in place to physically process and sort through the returns.

Consider the ‘grey’ market

Getting returned products back on sale is key, especially during the January sales period when consumers are looking for bargains. To ensure you’re recouping some value form returned goods, consider setting up an online outlet store to sell non-pristine returns at discount prices.

The emergence of channels like eBay brand stores or Amazon Warehouse has given retailers new ways of approaching this, particularly if you’d rather create some distance between your outlet and your core brand.

Capture the data

Returns offer crucial insights which can help inform product and distribution decisions and improve the overall customer experience.

If the reasons for returns are captured thoroughly through return slips or online questionnaires, this information can be used to identify faulty products or process errors, such as sizing errors in production or inaccurate colours displayed in an online shop. As a result, problems can be fixed quickly to avoid upsetting future customers.

Remember who it’s really about

Whereas with outbound deliveries brands have customers firmly in mind, the challenges of returns can make some become a little introspective. Always keep the customer at the heart of the process.

Be transparent about your returns policy, nasty surprises such as previously undisclosed returns costs will harm loyalty.

Have a second line customer service in place to resolve any escalated customer service issues such as payments not returned on time or disputes as to the status of a refund.

Work with a partner that can support integrated track and trace to help you let customers know the status of their return at every juncture from when it’s been received to when their accounts have been accredited.

For more information visit: www.arvato.co.uk