Drazena Ivicic at Intershop
Drazena Ivicic, Senior Manager Global Product Marketing, Intershop explains the “ideal world” approach retailers should take to returns in the post-Christmas rush.
How many returns should you expect?
You should calculate this from the biggest return period of the year (usually in January), based on both unwanted goods and faulty goods.
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How do I process returns?
How to create a faulty goods policy
How do you treat returns?
Many retailers have a special Christmas return policy such as return of unwanted goods without bill or receipt, or a longer term of redemption. One UK fashion retailer lets customers return unwanted goods up to mid January, as long as they have the original labels attached.
You can leverage the post-Christmas sales to reduce the stock that might increase after Christmas. Use email communication to inform customers about return policies, post-Christmas promotions etc. Also ask your customers to rate the quality of your return process so you can see what might need improving next year.
Finally, handle any negative feedback by creating individual special offers and promotions.
What systems and processes do you need to deal with returns?
Your e-commerce platform should be tightly integrated with your CRM and ERP systems. Your Order Management System needs to cover.
Ideally this will include: order history; item availability; integrated inventory from warehouses, local physical stores, third-party logistics and distributions centers; real-time inventory monitoring and visibility so that merchants can monitor the inventory status across multiple locations; and warehouse integration.
Make sure you have the systems in place to manage multi-touchpoint returns – customers can return products through a physical store, authorised distributor, dispatch department and other touchpoints.
Also make sure you allow in-store returns of online purchases, and help your customers find their nearest store quickly and easily using your store locator.
Your platform should be able to track returns to the original order and issue a credit to the applicable customer’s credit card or provide a gift card. To enable this, you need integration with your financial systems to issue refunds for returns or to charge for exchange order activity that requires additional charges to the customer.
Integration with your call center application means you can provide customers with information and advice on when and how they can return items, and your call center staff can prepare and send return slips via email.
For more, visit www.intershop.com
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