Returns Archives - Lateshipment.com Blog

How To Handle Returns And Exchanges During The Holidays

Sashank Ravindranath — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 06:52:27 +0000

With increased holiday sales comes an inevitable surge in returns and exchanges that could be a challenge post the shopping fiesta of BFCM and Christmas.

January is the peak month for package returns, with e-commerce businesses seeing 51% of the returns in a given year. However, the number of returns is generally high through December, January, and early February.

Fair warning: The problem is never returns but the challenges businesses face when they’re unequipped to deal with the sudden influx of returns be it due to falling prey to misconceptions or not having proper strategies to handle them effectively.

Businesses assume the post-purchase phase of a customer journey to end with shipping and delivery
Businesses assume returns are a cost-center that discourages customers from shopping with you again
Businesses often operate with limited resources, making it challenging to dedicate the time and effort required for effective returns strategies.

While this may seem daunting, a well-defined return policy and efficient processes can turn a potential headache into a positive customer experience and build customer loyalty.

Here’s a little something from our end to help e-commerce businesses like yours navigate the holiday returns rush effectively.

8 Tips To Handle Returns And Exchanges Like A Pro During The Holidays

1.Review your return policy and extend your return window

More often than not, holiday purchases are gifts for loved ones — hence, these packages might not get opened until after the holidays. Thus, during the holidays, you can consider offering a longer window (60-90 days) than your standard policy to accommodate holiday returns.

2. Clearly Communicate Your Policy

Make your return policy readily available throughout your website, especially on the product pages, order confirmations, and checkout areas. Make sure things are clear, concise, and easy to understand. For starters, you can include details about eligible items, timeframes, restocking fees, and instructions for initiating returns and exchanges in your policy.

3. Streamline the Return Process

Make the return process as simple and convenient as possible. Offer options for easy return initiation, printable return labels, multiple return locations, etc. Such actions help customers avoid long wait times and reduce frustrations.

4. Reduce Return-related Inquiries

Enable your customer service team to proactively handle return This helps in keeping customer interactions to a minimum during the order return phase. Similar to order deliveries, you can also send notifications about the return status to keep customers engaged. Ultimately, a good returns experience plays a decisive factor when it comes to their repeat shopping decision and thereby cements you as their preferred brand.

5. Enable Flexible Return Options

The holiday season can be unpredictable. Be prepared to adapt your return policies and processes as needed to address unforeseen circumstances or spikes in return volume. Ensure you have sufficient resources and personnel to handle increased inquiries and return requests. Additionally, you can allocate dedicated space for returned items and establish a system for inspecting and restocking them efficiently. This helps minimize delays and ensures your inventory remains accurate.

6. Track and Analyze Returns

Returns give you quality insights into your products and your customers’ shipping decisions. Leverage this goldmine by tracking your return data throughout the holiday season. Analyze common reasons for returns, identify problematic products, and assess the effectiveness of your return policies and procedures. Data can also give you insights into your returns process and help you refine your strategies and improve the return experience for future seasons.

7. Promote Exchanges over Refunds

70% of the returns are size and fit-related. Instead of shelling out dollars by refunding each return that comes in, you can provide the option to exchange the product or get store credits. You can also consider offering incentives such as discounts on exchange items, free shipping on exchanges, or store credit bonuses to encourage customers to pick exchanges and store credit. This strategy can help in retaining customers and minimizing revenue loss from returns.

8. Invest in Returns Automation

Leverage technology to streamline your return management process:

Utilize return portals that allow customers to initiate and track returns online
Automate return processing tasks, such as generating return labels, sending email notifications, and managing refunds.
Extend automation to manage inventory levels and restocking procedures.

Automating returns-related tasks saves time and resources by reducing workload and allows you to focus on other important tasks efficiently.

LateShipment.com’s Returns Experience Management is one such powerful, self-service returns platform built to boost the returns-related metrics that matter most to your business.

Here’s how it can come in handy.

How Returns Experience Management Can Help

Returns Experience Management comes with a user-friendly self-service returns portal where customers can easily initiate returns, choose a preferred method, track the status of the return, etc. This simplifies the whole returns process and improves repeat purchases.

You can also keep customers informed about the status of their returns at every step via email and SMS notifications with returns tracking information and updates to enhance the returns experience.

Returns Experience Management also comes with the provision to offer incentives and encourage customers to opt for exchanges and store credits instead of a full refund.

Additionally, with self-service and smart automations, you can drastically reduce the time spent per return request and inbound conversation volume. Also, with proactive status updates, live package tracking, and a host of support team-friendly features, you can free up your support agents to address more pressing issues.

The post How To Handle Returns And Exchanges During The Holidays appeared first on Lateshipment.com Blog.

Use Cases for a Returns Experience Management Solution

Sashank Ravindranath — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 06:55:00 +0000

In today’s e-commerce landscape, returns have become a huge deal.

Recent research shows that the e-commerce return rate, which was 16% in 2022, now falls around somewhere between 20-30%.

Just like choosing what they want to buy, customers have been showing increasing involvement in sending it back (be it for any reason).

This has made how returns are handled at e-commerce stores a huge differentiator when it comes to customers choosing brands. 92% of shoppers say they will buy again if the return process is easy.

But you don’t have to stress your mind too much about this — the criterion is very simple.

When customers buy something online and it doesn’t work out, sending it back shouldn’t be a headache.

Easier said than done, navigating through returns might be difficult for e-commerce merchants but there’s a catch to it. Meet customers’ high expectations and you can treat yourself with loyal customers for life.

This is where a Returns Experience Management solution comes into play. We’ll cover how it redefines returns as a growth driver for your business. But first, we’ll cover some basics to help you understand better.

What is Returns Experience Management?

E-commerce returns from a business’ PoV aren’t just collecting the shipped-out product back and taking further steps to rectify the issue. It’s filled with multiple KPIs such as return rate and return spend that must be tracked and optimized regularly in order to measure true success when it comes to order returns.

Returns Experience Management (REM) is the strategies and practices that e-commerce businesses implement to effectively handle and optimize customer experience when dealing with product returns.

REM encompasses various elements of the returns process such as Returns policy, status tracking, analytics, and much more aimed at making the returns process as smooth as possible for customers while also ensuring that the business can manage returns efficiently.

However, not all e-commerce businesses see returns the same way their customers expect them to. But we can’t blame them for it. There are a lot of misconceptions about returns that make e-commerce merchants repel them.

This unfortunately results in a situation where customers’ returns experience suffers tremendously leading to irreparable problems and lost opportunities.

Here are some insights into the current state of e-commerce returns and how businesses, particularly different teams of a store are affected by them.

The Current State Of Returns In E-Commerce - An Insight

As customers, e-commerce returns are all about sending back an order that we collect. What follows next falls under totally different aspects like refunds and replacements. It is the experience that matters during the moments of the returns process.

But things aren’t the same for e-commerce businesses. In order to provide THAT experience, there is a chain of activities where a lot of teams come together and perform exhaustive tasks that could impact the success of the business in the long run.

One wrong move and that will be the last the business hears from the customer again. This is where REM comes in to boost return-related metrics that matter most to your business.

To get a better context into what REM can do for your business, let’s take a look at how returns work in the back end of an environment that doesn’t have a REM in place.

1. Dealing with frequent returns inquiries is a tedious process

Customers need to contact the support team to return or exchange products and again to learn about the status of their returns and refunds – making the process time-consuming and unmanageable
If not for frequent customer interaction, there is often a lack of clarity in shipping instructions further adds to the confusion in returning products

2. An influx of inquiries from anxious customers bombarding support teams

Little to no visibility into the status of the return and lack of quick accessibility to real-time information make prompt support and resolution a hassle.
Repetitive inquiries from concerned customers about the status of their returns and refunds lead to delayed response
Customers are unable to easily look up the status of their return at their own discretion, leading to anxiety and frustration

3. Unmanaged returns are a cost center for e-commerce businesses

Customers opt for refunds due to the complicated exchange process, leading to losing a sale.
Customers often do not purchase again after receiving refunds to their original payment method, resulting in a lost sale and extra shipping costs

4. Manually processing returns makes it difficult to handle operations

Difficult to validate and record return information shared by customers via email communications. Customers also do not comply with the return policy and return items that are ineligible for returns
Manually generating shipping labels from the shipping carrier’s website, emailing or physically mailing them to customers each time a return is initiated as time-consuming and labor-intensive
Hassle to effectively track returns by warehouse operators and the operations team, etc

5. There is a clear lack of insight into the returns process

Lack of visibility into factors leading to returns such as operations and inefficiencies
Lack of opportunity to maintain accurate return inventory records such as timesheets or data to monitor and optimize time spent on return operations
Lack of visibility into customer’s return experience

Not to worry! The good news is that Returns Experience Management (REM) has a host of use cases for a variety of organizational roles that can help you resolve the issues we’ve discussed.

Use Cases For A Returns Experience Management Solution

1. Offer shoppers a simple and seamless return experience

Operations & Marketing teams have forever struggled to deal with customers, who feel the returns process is difficult, time-consuming, and frustrating.

With no REM in place, customers have the need to contact the support team whenever there’s a need to return or exchange products. More often than not, this frustrates customers who are already irate over having to return something that they’ve longed enough to buy (all the more pressure for merchants during times like the holiday season when gifts hold higher emotional value).

The solution is really simple: your customers are not looking forward to doing returns, so why make the process even more frustrating for them?

With a REM in place, you make returns and exchanges self-service to shoppers, via a dedicated returns portal that enables easy initiation and automated label generation, thereby eliminating the need for customers to the support team each time.

2. Reduce inquiries from anxious customers about the status of their returns and refunds.

Customer support teams are bombarded with an influx of inquiries from concerned customers about the status of their returns and refunds.

Just like the order delivery process, customers expect the business to stay in the know of their return’s status at all times and become increasingly anxious when they’re left in the dark regarding it.

In normal cases, this affects the returns experience of the customers by making them constantly go to the shipping carrier’s website to check the return status. In extreme cases, this can lead to anxious customers bombarding your support team with a return status inquiry that can consume all of their time.

Here’s the solution. REM helps businesses send automated return status updates to customers with the ability to track their returns in real time. By mitigating customers’ anxiety via regular and timely engagement, businesses can reduce return-related customer inquiries by up to 80%.

3. Retain sales and revenue with returns

In a typical environment, returns typically result in refunds, hence losing sales and profits.

According to a recent report, 70% of all returns are size and fit related. That’s almost three-fourths of your returns that don’t have to mean a refund.

However, with a lack of REM in place, Returns typically result in refunds, where the business has to refund the customer for the the purchase price of the product, as well as the cost of shipping the product back to the business. In addition, the business may have to pay a restocking fee, which is a fee that is charged to customers who return products.

Instead of refunding every return, REM provides businesses the chance to get smart with returns via flexible return methods.

By offering seamless exchange and store credit options, businesses can:

Keep customers shopping with the business despite an order return in place
Provide a great returns experience and ensure that customers are more likely to spend more money with the business
Reduce return-associated costs such as refunds and other processing costs and retain revenue from over 30% of your returns

To ensure that this process yields more successful results, businesses can also incentivize customers to opt for exchange or store credit with prepaid labels, free shipping, and bonus credit.

4. Automate and streamline the return process to reduce operational time

Return processes that heavily rely on assistance from support teams make returns unmanageable and time-consuming.

It’s not just initiation, customers’ doubts about returns begin the moment they have a return requirement and repeatedly check the returns page to understand more about the company’s policies with returns.

One of the main reasons for this happening is because the returns get handled differ brand to brand and when things are unclear, customers do have a hard time understanding if their product does qualify for a return. This often leads to the need for human intervention at every step which creates a bottleneck by straining resources and frustrating customers who expect quick and efficient resolutions.

This is where REM comes in to help businesses transform their return experience by automating the return process via presetting and customizing return rules and policies, auto-generating return labels, etc, and ultimately reducing return processing time by up to 90%.

5. Gain visibility into the when, the where, and the how the return progresses

Warehouse operators and the operations team are unable to effectively track returns in real time, making it a hassle to maintain accurate return inventory records and streamline the overall returns process.

Most businesses view returns as something complicated because they lack sufficient insights into what’s going wrong in the first place, thereby having no room to make necessary improvements and streamline the overall returns process.

Returns Experience Management, built to boost return-related metrics that matter most to businesses, comes with the ability to break down returns in order to gain visibility into the exact status, condition, and location of every return, i.e. anything related to the product being returned.

By breaking down returns into simple, actionable metrics, businesses can easily keep track, make better business decisions to turn these metrics work in your favor, and ultimately spell the success of your e-commerce business’ returns strategies.

6. Optimize return operations and drive strategic process improvements with actionable insights into returns

There is a lack of true visibility into their return operations and inefficiencies to make necessary improvements.

Under normal circumstances, handling multiple returns can really be overwhelming, particularly during times like peak shopping seasons.

Rather than going in blindly, it is better for businesses to get complete visibility into how your returns are performing via actionable insights, particularly through analyzing return trends, such as the types of products frequently returned, reasons for returns, etc, and identifying root causes to drive improvements to your returns process and experience.

For instance, if a specific product category consistently experiences high returns, the business can scrutinize its quality, sizing information, or imagery to address underlying issues. Armed with this data, companies can refine product descriptions, and enhance quality control.

Embracing these insights enables e-commerce businesses to gain absolute visibility & control to measure and optimize the entire return operations.

Lateshipment.Com’s Returns Experience Management To Redefine Returns As A Growth Driver For E-commerce Business

LateShipment.com’s Returns Experience Management (REM) platform helps e-commerce businesses take delight beyond the buy button with seamless, flexible returns in the form of:

Provisions to set up flexible return methods and automated, prepaid labels
A customizable, on-demand return portal with zero interaction with support agents to make the return experience fast and easy for customers
Proactive updates on return requests, via automated email and SMS status notifications, keep customers in the loop effortlessly
A live tracking page to provide transparency around return status and eliminate customer anxiety about the whereabouts of their package
Offer seamless exchange and store credit options to ensure revenue retention
Support user and warehouse operator dashboards are purpose-built to drive quick return request resolution
Proactive, automated status updates ensure your customers have complete transparency on return status at all times, thereby reducing ticket volume
Returns trend analysis and insights such as return satisfaction scores to keep track and make constant improvements to provide the best return experience there is

And boost returns-related metrics that matter most to your business via increasing conversion rate, repeat purchases, revenue retained, etc, and reduce time spent per return.

By using REM, e-commerce businesses can improve the returns process and increase customer satisfaction, leading to improved customer loyalty, increased sales, and ultimately a better bottom line.

If you are an e-commerce merchant looking to integrate Returns Experience Management into your existing business process, our experts are here to talk to you about the best ways REM can work for your business.

The post Use Cases for a Returns Experience Management Solution appeared first on Lateshipment.com Blog.

Tips for a Great eCommerce Returns Process

Sashank Ravindranath — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 04:57:12 +0000

What a journey has it been for e-commerce returns — From terrifying businesses with the presumption of being customer repulsive and a cost-center to becoming one of the most sought after services from a business.

However, even today, most businesses consider the order experience to end with delivery and see returns as just something trivial instead of a feature that they definitely should embrace.

But is just providing returns enough? Well, not so much in 2023 at least.

Today’s customers have increased expectations when it comes to returns experiences from brands.

Meeting, or rather exceeding these expectations, can lead to a smooth and hassle-free returns process that increases their satisfaction levels and helps you turn a potentially negative experience into an opportunity to win loyal customers.

Thus, without further ado, here are some tips to help you optimize your returns process to create happier customers and enjoy success.

Tips for Improving Your E-Commerce Returns Process

1. Simplify handling returns requests

The first step to make your returns a breeze starts with the first action that takes place when there’s a need to make a return arises from the customer’s end — initiation.

Returns initiation is nothing but the customer having a product that they’d like to return at hand and notifying you of it.

Under legacy methods, this usually involves the customer contacting the support team with a query, which becomes a ticket that needs to be followed up and acted upon.

However, this may not be the best ploy as support interactions may take time and a long initiation process can frustrate customers who may drop off without initiating AND doing business with you.

Up to 40% of customers will stop doing business with a company if the process for initiating returns is complicated.

Worry not! There’s a better way to do this.

Have a clear returns policy

Tailor your returns policy in a way that it meets your objectives as well as is clear enough for your customers to understand.

When customers know what to do and what to expect there is less friction in the initiation process, thus leading to:

Happy customers due to increased satisfaction and reduces frustration levels
Reduced workload on customer service reps
Increased savings on shipping and processing costs, thanks to lower number of returns

Make the returns initiation process as simple and straightforward as possible

Ensure that doing returns with you, comes with a host of benefits such as:

Multiple channels to request returns, such as a dedicated returns portal on your website, or even a chatbot – to display your commitment to providing customers with a great returns process
Flexible return methods such as exchanges and store credits – to make the process more convenient and encourage repeat purchases
Automated and prepaid return labels – to retain control over return-related costs

All of this can make the returns initiation process quicker and easier, and ultimately reduce the chances of your customers giving up on doing returns by enhancing their satisfaction.

2. Deliver a great returns experience

A seamless returns initiation process to begin helps you improve customer satisfaction among other things.

Riding high on that wave, your next action is to provide a great returns experience that boosts loyalty.

92% of shoppers say they will buy again if the returns process is easy.

This means your chance to redefine returns as a growth driver and not customer repulsive is here and well-defined.

Proactively Process Returns

Once returns are received, process them promptly and efficiently to ensure that your customers don’t get any second thoughts regarding continuing business with you.

Aim to issue refunds or exchanges as quickly as possible, demonstrating your commitment to resolving any issues proactively.

You can also employ automation to manage inventory, track the status of returned items, and ensure that items are returned to the correct location and that they are available for sale again.

Provide seamless returns status tracking

Providing customers with real-time updates on the status of their returns builds trust and transparency.

Send proactive updates on returns requests, via automated email and SMS status notifications and provide a live tracking page, to allow customers to stay in the whereabouts of their package. This works in reducing support inquiries and enhancing customer experience, thereby leading to increased customer confidence.

Being proactive with returns also helps in reducing the time taken on handling returns and frees up your support agents and warehouse operators time.

3. Reduce the number of returns

Almost all returns are valid but not all of them have to be refunded or initiated as returns. This is because almost 70% of all returns are size and fit related.

These returns, if not cut down, can prove to be a costly problem for e-commerce businesses, and lead to lost revenue and increased shipping costs.

Lucky for you, there are a number of things that e-commerce businesses can do to reduce unwanted returns.

Implement return reason analysis

Analyze the reasons for returns to identify patterns and potential areas for improvement.

If the data suggests that there are recurring issues with product quality, size discrepancies, or incorrect descriptions, etc, you can take efforts to address the problem at its root cause and implement corrective actions to reduce future returns.

Understanding return reasons can also guide product development and improve product descriptions, leading to a better shopping experience for your customers.

Leverage returns data for business insights

Returns data can offer valuable insights into your business in the form of specific products or categories, seasonality trends, and the impact of marketing campaigns on returns.

This data-driven approach allows you to make informed decisions and fine-tune your inventory, marketing and customer service strategies.

Final word

Improving your returns process is not only crucial for customer satisfaction but also an opportunity to gain a competitive edge in the e-commerce industry.

By offering a clear and user-friendly returns policy, simplifying returns initiation, and efficiently processing returns, you can create a positive post-purchase experience for your customers.

Leverage returns data to make informed business decisions and continuously improve your operations.

Remember, a seamless returns process can turn dissatisfied customers into loyal advocates for your brand. Invest in enhancing your returns process, and watch your e-commerce business thrive.

The post Tips for a Great eCommerce Returns Process appeared first on Lateshipment.com Blog.

5 Must Know Return KPIs for Every Modern E-commerce Businesss

Sashank Ravindranath — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 15:13:08 +0000

E-commerce returns have greatly evolved over the years.

Businesses initially saw returns as just a cost-center for their business and planned to save a few bucks by not offering returns to their customers.

Then e-commerce retailers began realizing that customers preferred to shop with businesses that offered returns and considered returns inevitable and a necessary evil that encouraged people to shop more.

Fast forward to today, we are seeing returns as a great opportunity to build strong relationships and increase repeat purchases.

A great returns experience helps you increase repeat purchase rates by 4x.

But how do you determine if your strategies are indeed successful and you are indeed providing a great returns experience?

That’s where specific valuable return metrics or return KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) come in to help you measure the success of your e-commerce business’s returns experience.

These metrics help you keep track of these metrics and have a data-driven approach

So, what are these metrics, and why are they important? Let’s take a look.

Side note: After much product development hours, we at LateShipment.com are launching our advanced Returns Analytics Dashboard. This will enable your teams to make better business decisions when it comes to product returns. You can read more about the product launch below.

Returns-related Metrics (Return KPIs) to Keep Track of

There are generally two kinds of metrics when it comes to e-commerce returns that tell you if your strategies have been successful. Metrics that show whether your returns are acting as a competitive advantage for your brand and if returns are indeed profitable for your business. Here’s a compiled breakdown of both for you.

1. Return Rate

The return rate is the rate of return as against the total products ordered. That is, if 25 out of 100 orders from your customers are returned, your return rate would stand at 25%.

Return rate as a metric blurs the lines between your products and returns efforts. For example, returns can happen due to issues with your product or if your returns policy is too lenient, so as to encourage frequent fraudulent returns in the form of wardrobing, etc.

Despite being a legacy method, you can constantly keep track of your return rates to introspect different components of returns and make important returns-related decisions such as product descriptions.

2. Return Spend

Return spend, also the ‘Cost per return’, tells you the cumulative value of the return shipping cost that businesses spend per return.

If you’re a business that bears the cost of return shipping, then your return spends tell you how much you spend on return-related logistics over time.

This can give you insights to cut costs and get smart with your returns. For example, if you feel your return shipping costs are burning a hole through your pockets, encourage customers to opt for alternative and efficient return methods such as exchanges or store credit options to ensure revenue retention.

3. Reason for return

This new metric is an extension of the return rate that is set to clear the lines between product-related returns and fraudulent ones.

Knowing the reason behind customers returning their items gives you better clarity on breaking down your return rate.

Customers who have mentioned reasons such as defective, damaged, or simply didn’t like the product would not likely return to shop with you again. Therefore, use this metric to make frequent quality checks with your product to reduce customer churn.

4. Frequently returned products

This is another new metric that comprehends the reason for return and ultimately the return rate.

Here’s a question on your mind: “I know why customers are returning their orders but what are they returning the most?”

Knowing the answer to this question helps you understand the collective issue behind a particular item category. If the percentage is higher than your worry threshold, you can take efforts to recall the particular item and do quality checks.

For example, if your Denim Jacket and Jean Pants are being returned higher than usual, maybe it’s time for you to reconsider where you source your denim raw materials from.

5. Preferred return methods

This metric defines the composition of refunds-exchanges and store credits in product returns over a course of time.

Identify the percentage of returns that end up being refunded, turned into an existing product, or simply have its value-added for a later purchase.

Keep in mind that refunds usually mean lost revenue and as an e-commerce business owner, you must promote exchanges and store credits to ensure healthy returns and revenue retention.

You can incentivize your customers to opt out of frequent refunds by providing them with better deals for the others.

How to Regularly Keep Track of Return KPIs

Now that you’re aware of why your business needs to be aware of these metrics, it is clear that you need to keep track of these metrics regularly.

To make things easier, you can make use of a solution that provides these metrics on a consistent and most importantly. a unified basis.

Meet LateShipment.com’s Returns Experience Management platform with the all-new Returns Analytics Dashboard, a.k.a the solution

LateShipment.com is a one-stop solution for everything post-purchase, whose Returns Experience Management platform is built to boost returns-related metrics that matter most to your business.

As an addition to the Returns Experience Management, comes the upgraded Returns Analytics Dashboard which breaks down returns into simple, actionable metrics to help your teams make better business decisions.

With the help of the Analytics Dashboard, keep track and see these returns-related metrics work in your favor and ultimately spell the success of your e-commerce business’ returns strategies.

To Learn more about the dashboard and Returns Experience Management – Click here to schedule a call with a product expert

Other ways the Returns Experience Management platform can help your business

Apart from specific returns-related metrics, Returns Experience Management also helps you make returns easy and profitable by increasing important CX metrics:

Conversion rate by extending a frictionless returns experience
Repeat purchases with easy returns and status tracking
Revenue retained with flexible return methods (seamless exchanges and store credit options).

Also, you can considerably reduce the time spent per return by making returns status tracking self-service.

Bottom Line

Remember, the returns experience you provide holds incredible power to boost your bottom line and create loyal customers for life. Therefore, it is time to redefine returns as a growth driver for your business.

To get all things done right before the significant returns season arrives in January, you can make use of a returns management solution such as LateShipment.com.

The post 5 Must Know Return KPIs for Every Modern E-commerce Businesss appeared first on Lateshipment.com Blog.

Ecommerce Returns Management Process: Best Practices

Sashank Ravindranath — Thu, 19 May 2022 10:35:43 +0000

Returns are an integral part of every ecommerce business. 20% of all ecommerce orders are returned. And this number increased up to three-fold during times like the holiday season.

However, they become a logistical nightmare and a cost center only when they get out of hand in the absence of a proper returns management system.

Therefore, you need to put in your best efforts to manage returns and make them a growth driver for your business. But first, let’s get to the basics.

What is Ecommerce Returns Management?

Returns management is the process of ensuring a smooth returns experience for your customers. This covers the end-to-end of returns — from the moment the customer initiates to fulfilling a replacement if they had requested an exchange.

Ecommerce returns management sits at the very center of reverse logistics, inventory management, and post-purchase customer experience.

Proper returns management helps you boost your bottom line and create loyal customers for life. To help understand it better, let’s take a deeper look at the customer touchpoints in ecommerce returns.

Returns management customer touchpoints

There are several touchpoints or points of interaction between the customer and the ecommerce business in the returns management process. But as we mentioned, it all starts from the moment the customer wants to initiate a return.

1. Customer requests a return on their order

Returns happen for a lot of reasons, some of which have no logical explanation and are simply based on the customer’s emotion.

But in this case, let’s take the example of the customer being unhappy with their order. The customer selects the item they wish to return along with the valid reason (as requested by you).

2. The return request is rejected or approved from your end

When return requests do not meet the conditions you’ve provided, the return request can be rejected and interaction with the customers for this particular order ends here.

On the other hand, if the reason for the return is valid it can be approved from your end and the process for initiating the return gets started.

3. When the order return is in transit

Order returns are in transit from the moment it is scheduled to be collected to the moment it reaches back to your store. These moments are usually leveraged by ecommerce brands to share return status updates.

4. When the product is returned to the store

Once the product makes its way back to your store, you can start collecting the customers’ feedback on their shopping experience with your brand. If the feedback is positive, you can also try convincing the customer to shop for a replacement (if they hadn’t chosen one already).

That’s all from the experience front. In terms of business operations, the product is then sent for inspection. If there’s no sign of damage, the product is re-stocked in the inventory and sold to another customer.

Now that we’ve got better context, here are some of the best practices related to returns management that you can implement for your ecommerce business.

Ecommerce Returns Management Process: Best Practices

1. Have a shopper-friendly returns policy

67% of shoppers check the returns policy before making a purchase

The first thing a shopper checks while wanting to return an item is your store’s return policy. Therefore, make it friendly enough to attract them and encourage repeat shopping.

The best ploy with a returns policy is:

Making it flexible enough in terms of conditions and deadlines
Having it mention your objectives and the customers’ needs clearly
Not encouraging fraudulent returns and wardrobing

This way, there is a win-win situation, and you can still manage to increase conversions without spending too much on acquisition and other unwanted return-related expenses.

Also, make sure your returns policy is easy to find for the customer and display it in areas of clear visibility such as the home page, product pages, checkout page, FAQ section, etc.

2.Promise a hassle-free returns experience

Your customers return their purchase because they were unhappy with something around it, such as fitting, color, damages, etc. They have been excited to get the product on their hands the second they hit ‘buy’. Therefore, mitigate their frustrations by making your returns process seamless.

You can take the hassle out of product returns by enabling your customers to initiate returns directly from the order tracking page instead of spending time searching for it. This helps in improving the return experience and in turn, delights your customers.

You can also extend the seamless returns experience by enabling the customers to print automated and prepaid return labels and get done with their order return quickly.

3. Make the returns process fast and easy for your customers

92% of shoppers say they will buy again if the returns process is easy.

Apart from prepaid return labels, you can also enable customers to initiate returns easily and fast with the help of a returns portal.

Your customers can pull up their orders, select the item they would like to return, provide a reason, select the return method, and voila! Get their returns initiated in less than a few minutes.

Such an experience would give your customers all the more reason to keep shopping with you.

4.Keep your customers in the loop of their returns

Just like order delivery, your customers would like to stay in the know of their return status as well.

Look forward to sending proactive updates on return requests, via automated email and SMS notifications and providing a tracking page that provides complete transparency around return status.

This can keep your customers in the loop effortlessly and eliminate their anxiety about the whereabouts of their returning package.

5. Get smart with your returns

70% of all returns are size and fitting related.

Imagine refunding all these returns and taking a hit on your profit margins amidst the already sky-rocketing shipping costs.

Now, this is where you can get smart with your returns and encourage customers to opt for alternative and efficient return methods such as exchanges or store credits options to ensure revenue retention for your ecommerce business.

You can incentivize your customers to choose these alternatives with prepaid labels, free shipping, bonus credit, etc, and increase revenue retained.

6. Automate your returns management process

25% of ecommerce sites don’t support non-product search queries, like returns or tracking.

This can lead your customers to bombard your support reps and turn out to be tedious for your support team as well as expensive for your business.

You can consider making your returns management process self-service by automating them to prevent such problems.

Automating your returns process can help you:

Free up your support agents to address more pressing issues
Drastically reduce time spent per return request and inbound conversation volume.

FAQs about Returns Management

1. How do ecommerce businesses manage returns?

Ecommerce businesses can manage returns on their own by optimizing their returns policy, setting up flexible return methods, enabling customers to print prepaid return shipping labels, providing proactive updates on return status requests, offering easy variant exchanges instead of refunds, etc or they can make use of a returns management solution like LateShipment.com, that does all the heavy lifting for them.

2. What is the return management process?

3. How can ecommerce businesses reduce return rates?

Apart from following a proper returns management process such as making the returns process seamless and promoting exchanges instead of returns, ecommerce businesses can also reduce returns by optimizing their product pages, engaging customers with product usage information, etc.

4. What percentage of ecommerce orders are returned?

The average ecommerce return rate hovers around 20-30%. Most of them are due to size and fitting issues, purchase of wrong quantity, unclear or lack of usage information, wardrobing, etc.

5. How does a returns experience management software work?

A returns experience management solution such as LateShipment.com helps you delight your customers with:

An easy-to-use return portal
Real-time return tracking and automated notifications
Providing options to predefine rules
Enabling multiple return methods and supporting prepaid labels, etc.

All of this can help you uncomplicate returns for you and your teams.

Bottom Line

Ecommerce businesses must start realizing the fact that returns on their own are not necessarily a bad thing. It is when they’re left unattended they become too much to handle.

On the other hand, the returns experience you provide holds incredible power to boost your bottom line and create loyal customers for life. Therefore, it is time to redefine returns as a growth driver for your business.

To get all things done right before the significant returns season arrives in January, you can make use of a returns management solution such as LateShipment.com.

The post Ecommerce Returns Management Process: Best Practices appeared first on Lateshipment.com Blog.

5 Ways to Leverage Customer Support For Holiday Season Success

Sashank Ravindranath — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 06:51:24 +0000

The Pivotal Role of Customer Support in Overall The Post-purchase CX

A staggering 40% of customer support issues are Shipping, Delivery, and Returns related issues occurring in the post-purchase phase of the customer journey.

The verdict is clear.

Businesses of every size, small or big, deal with order delivery issues, particularly when they use third-party shipping service providers (even more so during the Holiday season when order volumes are 3x-4x). Therefore, despite delivery issues occurring, one must find a way to proactively resolve them or at least mitigate their impact on customers before you lose them for good.

When these issues are handled right, your support team’s actions directly impact your CSAT scores and also delight your customers by surpassing their expectations.

However, if you unintentionally neglect the post-purchase phase, you are prone to face challenges that arise due to a lack of effective customer support in the form of:

Running the risk of poor customer satisfaction
Losing loyal customers to bad delivery experiences
Brand’s online reputation taking a hit
Spending time and money heavily on acquisition costs, etc.

The Holiday season is a time when order volumes are high and shipping carriers are straining to meet delivery promises, increasing the magnitude of the problem multifold during the Holiday season. That is why businesses must prepare well ahead for the Holiday season i.e right around the corner.

And the first step towards that is being aware of the challenges that your customer support team would face and equipping them to handle them with ease.

Customer Support Challenges During the Holiday Season

1. Lack of visibility or data for resolving issues proactively

My son is very disappointed that you can’t deliver his jersey on-time for his first @NHLFlyers game, even though I paid for 2-Day shipping. Your lack of effort to correct this issue is noted.
— evanwiener (@evanwiener) March 20, 2019

Customers during the Holiday season anticipate their orders with extra diligence. Thus, in case of unprecedented issues such as delays, make sure you proactively resolve them by employing expedited corrective measures in order to not let them feel let down.

Tracking your customers’ parcels in real-time helps you stay on top of delivery issues. However, if you’re tracking through your shipping carrier, then it’s important to keep in mind that:

Shipping carriers more often than not do not provide real-time tracking of parcels and
Shipping carriers are known to hide information regarding delays or other issues to prevent them from being shown in a bad light.

In either case, you end up not resolving issues proactively and settle for being just reactive. This is of little or no help to your customers who would’ve already been impacted by the issue and would have been put through a bad delivery experience.

2. Lack of effective customer communication while dealing with delivery issues

Snow Update: We know how important delivering your order is, even in bad weather so we'll let you know of any delays as soon as possible. X
— Coast (@CoastFashion) January 17, 2013

Not all delivery issues can be resolved. There can be uncommon issues such as weather-related exceptions. In such cases, at instances like these, it is best to proactively communicate the hurdle in place to your customer with empathy, and provide them with context.

If your customer informs you of the issue first and not the other way around, it creates an assumption that you don’t care about their orders and they start to consider shopping with your competitors for no fault of yours. This would also increase the volume of incoming tickets for your business.

On the other hand, being empathetic and preemptively notifying them of such issues, can help you win their trust and earn loyalty. Which is now a lost opportunity.

3. High support ticket volumes pertaining to order status

When I get a notification that my order has been dispatched? I go feral.
Absolutely foaming at the mouth.
Where is my package where is my package where is my package
— sonka (@_soybeans) September 21, 2021

Even when everything seems to go right with your customers’ orders, you can still face issues due to their impatience resulting from anticipation.

This sometimes leads them to bombard your support reps with WISMO inquiries. Repeatedly resolving these queries consumes all of your support team’s time and prevents them from doing their other tasks such as product-related queries.

To avoid this situation, you can notify your customers of their order status as they unfold across the delivery lifecycle and thereby increase your CSAT scores and reduce the number of support tickets created.

Knowing these issues is just half of being prepared to leverage a great customer experience. The crucial attribute lies in taking necessary steps and staying ahead of these issues. Let us look at how businesses can do it.

5 Ways to Leverage Customer Support and Win Big This Holiday Season

People expect fast replies from businesses. Many people are more willing to leave a bad review about a poor customer service experience than over a
suboptimal product.

Live chat, FAQ's, robots, social media can all help with this.
— Andrew Spence (@AndrewSpenceIM) March 23, 2021

Empowering your customer support team to properly address order-related customer issues can help you:

Demonstrate a strong commitment to the high standard of customer experience you offer
Show empathy towards your customers’ issues and
Ultimately build a loyal customer base

Here’s how you can do just that.

1. Provide 24/7 customer support

Investing in a 24/7 support team cannot be overlooked especially in busy times like the holiday season. Even if you don’t have a customer base that spreads across geographies, 24/7 support can still help you reduce wait time and increase customer loyalty.

2. Create a proactive support workflow

Empower your support team to proactively resolve issues such as delivery delays, frequent WISMO calls, etc, and take preemptive action before such discrepancies impact your customers.

3. Provide your team with complete information

Enable your customer support executives with all relevant data regarding your customers’ orders to easily spot shipments that may require attention and enable them to intervene where necessary.

4. Reach out to customers via multiple channels

Email, SMS, social media, Google reviews, Yelp you name it; reach your customers there. Effectively engage your customers across all these channels to give your customers a sense of comfortability.

5. Make delivery and returns tracking self-serve

Automate responses for common queries and make order or returns tracking easy with zero interactions with your support agents. This frees up your team’s time and lets them focus on other important tasks like product-related queries or even help in upselling/ cross-selling.

Provide Firepower to Your Customer Support Team

A post-purchase and returns management solution such as LateShipment.com can help you stay ahead of support challenges by enabling you to engage your customers in ways that matter most with timely order updates and tools to help with proactive issue resolution via:

A dedicated customer support dashboard – Designed to

Get predictive alerts for delivery issues
Auto-trigger tickets on your helpdesk for 7 types of delivery failures and
Enable agents with order tracking information from within your helpdesk for faster resolution

Shipping transactional notifications – Keep your customers updated on what happens in the post-purchase phase via

Proactive identification and contextual communication with customers facing critical delivery issues
Automated and customized order status notifications via email or SMS throughout the delivery lifecycle

Customer support and helpdesk integrations – Secure, seamless integrations with various platforms to

Monitor parcels in real-time
Proactively resolve delivery-related customer issues and
Effectively engage with customers

A Returns experience management solution – That provides you with:

A Returns portal and support user/ warehouse operator dashboards to make the returns experience fast and easy and drive quick returns request resolution
A tracking page that provides complete transparency around return status and eliminates customer anxiety about the whereabouts of their package
Proactive updates on returns to keep your customers in the loop of their order returns, etc.

Bottom line

We’ve said it before. Delivery issues such as delays are inevitable but let’s change the fact that they hurt your business.

Empower your customer support team to overcome the challenges we’ve discussed here, particularly during the holidays, and enjoy a great sales run.

Making use of a post-purchase solution such as LateShipment.com will strengthen the hands of your support team and help you stay in control of the post-purchase experience.

Ultimately, a business that is in control of its post-purchase will have a competitive advantage when it comes to both delighting and retaining its customers.

The post 5 Ways to Leverage Customer Support For Holiday Season Success appeared first on Lateshipment.com Blog.

Returns Experience Management for Shopify Users

Sashank Ravindranath — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 14:55:30 +0000

Are you an online retailer who runs their business on Shopify and wants to provide their customers with a streamlined returns experience?

Then you’ve come to the right place. In this blog, we’ll cover…

The existing gap with returns in eCommerce retail
The need for a returns management solution to close the gap
FAQs from retailers when it comes to returns, etc

With this blog, be sure to get to know the ins and outs of returns management and how to optimize it for customer satisfaction.

One might wonder.

Why do I need to focus on my returns strategy in the first place, when return shipping isn’t a profit-yielding business strategy?.

Here’s why you should.

92% of the shoppers will buy again if the returns process is frictionless and user-friendly.

The Bottom line — returns should be as easy as shopping itself in your store.

However, is it not as easy as it looks due to the existing gaps in the way eCommerce stores handle returns.

But that doesn’t mean you avoid returns entirely as product returns are inevitable in eCommerce, particularly when you leverage free returns to acquire customers, and even the best businesses out there struggle to build a frictionless and profitable returns strategy.

Therefore, preparing your Shopify store to provide a seamless returns experience is key to your store’s success as it holds incredible power to improve your retention and repeat purchase rates.

Let’s see how Shopify users can manage and redefine their returns as a driver of growth.

Leveraging A Returns Experience Management Solution to Handle Shopify Returns

We’ve probably said it before, Investing in a returns experience management solution can help you fulfill the promise of a hassle-free Shopify returns experience by equipping you with a great returns strategy.

But first. what really makes up a great returns strategy?

Here’s a comprehensive checklist on the topic that you can gain access to by submitting a simple form.

How Lateshipment.Com’s Returns Experience Management Solution Is Built for Shopify and Makes Returns Easy and Profitable

LateShipment.com’s Returns Experience Management is a powerful, self-service returns platform that holds incredible power to boost your bottom line and create loyal customers for life

Apart from holding all the features of a complete returns management solution, Returns Experience Management hands you the reins to do more in the form of:

A customizable, on-demand returns portal makes the return experience fast and easy for your customers with close to zero interactions with your support agents
A purpose-built returns dashboard for merchants, support users, and warehouse operators to drive quick return request resolution and drastically reduce your team’s time tending to returns and thereby reduce support ticket volume.
A tracking page for returns that provides transparency around return status and eliminates customer anxiety about the whereabouts of their package.

One another way to optimize your returns management strategy is to understand your customer’s expectations when it comes to returns and take steps to meet or rather exceed them.

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions by merchants with respect to managing returns.

Common FAQs Merchants Have on Returns

Q: How do I handle eCommerce returns?

A: The best way to handle returns is to make returns easier for your customer. Informing your return policies beforehand, pre-printing return labels, offering multiple and flexible return methods, etc can all help you in making it as easy as shopping in your store.

Q: Are returns bad for my business?

A: Returns are a necessary evil and a cost-center only when you look at them that way. However, when returns are handled well, they become a retention and revenue opportunity.

Q: How do I reduce the impact of frequent returns and refund rates on my profits?

A: The best way to reduce return costs and refund rates is to do more than just returns. Incentivize customers to opt for exchanges or store credit to ensure revenue retention.

Q: My support team is often burdened with returns requests. Even more so after customers have initiated returns. Is there something I can do about that?

A: By making returns self-serve, i.e, easy returns initiation, exchanges, and more can help in reducing returns-related customer issues. Proactive and automated customer communications including real-time tracking of returns during the entire returns lifecycle will further reduce the load on support teams.

Q: How do I streamline my eCommerce business’ returns process?

A: The best way to streamline your eCommerce returns process and make your customers’ returns journey seamless is to invest in an automated returns management system that helps you with everything from initiating easy returns and printing labels to status tracking and a host of support-friendly features

Q: I’ve tried different Shopify returns apps, how is a returns management system for Shopify any different?

A: Returns applications on Shopify mostly help you with just initiating returns and creating labels. However, a returns experience management platform such as LateShipment.com comes up with all the features of the returns management system with the added benefits of

24/7 chat, email, and phone support to help you with any requirements
Stringent security of your data
Individualized onboarding and training
Dedicated customer success manager, etc.

Optimize Your Shopify Returns Process

Shopify helps you provide a great buying experience by optimizing your eCommerce website.

But returns are unique. That’s why an automated returns solution is at the need of the hour.

Manage your returns process to optimize the experience you provide. This holds incredible power to boost your bottom line and create loyal customers for life.

With the help of a returns experience management solution, redefine Shopify returns to a growth driver for your business not just in terms of customer loyalty and revenue retention but taking analytics and making improvements to reduce eCommerce return rates.

Get started with Returns Experience Management for Shopify.

The post Returns Experience Management for Shopify Users appeared first on Lateshipment.com Blog.