WalMart.com got a total redo, from the ground up, then came the two-day shipping (which is now free without a membership fee) and now, an expansion of that free shipping into its third-party seller marketplace.

So much is going out from WalMart and its fulfillment centers that you have to stop and wonder, what’s the plan for the in-bound? Professional reverse logistics must be massive at a place like WalMart, where millions of different items are shelved and distributed by 4,700 stores, as well as by the website.

How WalMart is Doing Reverse Logistics

Walmart’s clearly got Amazon in its sights, but there’s a lot of catch-up if the big box store is going to be a real challenger to the internet retail giant.

This holiday season, however, WalMart’s game plan may generate some talk among those in the know. There’s a reason that approaching reverse logistics like WalMart is the gold standard, as the company is setting itself up to turn what most retailers consider to be a massive fail into a huge win with tactics like:

• Simplifying online returns. Walmart aims to make it easier to return something to the store via their website. It’s a simple click and print situation, where you only have to log into your account and report the item that you need to return for the materials you’re going to need to pop up. Pack it, ship it with the label and your credit comes easy as you please.
• Simplifying returns of WalMart items in-store. If you don’t trust yourself to get to a shipper with your labeled box, put that return into a box or mailing bag (depending on what you’re returning) and take it with you right to the store. The WalMart associate will take it from there. In-store drop-offs are clever because people do tend to buy new things when they’re making a return.
• Expanding in-store returns to WalMart Marketplace items. There’s nothing like getting a great deal on a marketplace platform only to find out that it’s not really what you expected or it arrives DOA.WalMart is approaching this with a unique idea: accepting the return on the seller’s behalf. So, along with the fees that a Marketplace seller pays for basic access to the customer base, they can also opt for WalMart to return their items to inventory as part of normal returns management activities. It’s great for customers and for the sellers involved.

No matter how big or small your operation is, you can approach reverse logistics like WalMart. The secret is reducing the friction for your shoppers by making returns as easy to make as purchases. Those returns are going to happen regardless of your actions, you might as well use them as opportunities to provide excellent customer service and win customer loyalty.

The post How To Approach Reverse Logistics Like WalMart first appeared on Smart Returns.

For online retailers, as much as 30 percent of your sales may ultimately come back. There’s no single solution to help slow the bleed, but you can make the best of your returns management and focus on how good reverse logistics pay you back right away.

Customers Love Good Reverse Logistics

Returns are inevitable, so you might as well use them to build a stronger relationship with your shoppers and inflate your reputation as a business that’s easy to work with.

According to ComScore, about 63 percent of customers review your returns policy before making a purchase. If your policy is lacking, or you’re lacking a policy, it can spell disaster. But, for brands that have customer-friendly returns policies, these are a few of the ways they can pay you right back:

• Improving customer goodwill. The customer experience is everything these days. After all, your products are likely also sold by other vendors, so you have to have something extra that makes people want to use your business above all others.Giving customers a good experience by throwing in little things like smart labels or instant refunds can be a huge thing, even enough to create lots of enthusiastic brand ambassadors.
• Fueling future purchases. Any time a shopper uses a new shop, they’re hesitant, especially if the vendor is more clicks than bricks.If your first order doesn’t go exactly as planned, but you make it right quickly and with no roadblocks, those customers will be more comfortable buying from your shop in the future. And they’ll tell their friends that you can be trusted. It’s a big deal for a little reverse supply chain magic.
• Getting products back to resell. When your returns policy is easy for the customer, you can count on recovering more money out of each item that’s being returned.Items that arrive back at your facility in perfect condition because they arrived in the wrong color, for example, can immediately go back into inventory, giving you another chance to sell them for full price. Items that aren’t as perfect will still recover more of their value the sooner they’re sent back to you because they’re still in style and up to date.

Good returns mean good business and lots of goodwill between you and your customers. If you don’t have a dedicated reverse logistics team, there’s no time like right now to add one to your supply chain. Your favorite 3rd party logistics companies often offer returns management for less than you would pay an in-house team and they’ll handle those returns per your specifications without having to be trained from scratch.

The post 3 Ways That Good Returns Pay You Right Back first appeared on Smart Returns.

These merchants regularly see returns rates of around 30 percent, even when they’re doing everything right. It has little to do with the merchant and a lot to do with their customers, namely the “Serial Returner.”

What is a Serial Returner?

Serial Returners are people who return a lot of stuff.

But this isn’t the regular sort of “wrong size, wrong color” return, instead they frequently purchase additional sizes, colors or models of an item so they can choose the best from what they receive and send the rest of the lot back. They’ve become such a problem for the retail industry that many retailers are considering such extreme measures as lifetime bans on customers who purchase items with the intent of returning them.

It’s not that companies want to have customer-unfriendly policies, but all of these returns are having a serious impact on industries from retail to logistics from their sheer volume. According to research by ERP firm Brightpearl 42 percent of U.S. retailers have seen an increase in serial returners in the last 12 months.

Would You Know a Serial Returner?

One of the biggest reasons that retailers continue to lose money to serial returners is because they lack the technology to properly identify them. Almost 60 percent of the retailers that participated in the Brightpearl survey said they lacked the technology to properly identify customers who were abusing the system.

Those that can, though, are taking serious steps to curb the Serial Returners among their customer base. Amazon has famously started closing accounts of Serial Returners without notice, while LL. Bean announced that it was ending its century-old “no questions asked” return policy. A full quarter of those retailers surveyed by Brightpearl said that they believed a lifetime ban for these shoppers was necessary to protect their margins from eroding further.

Even consumers themselves are for banning Serial Returners. According to the same survey, 58 percent of shoppers support bans on troublesome buyers. Only seven percent outright decried the practice.

Protect Your Company From Serial Returners

There’s no way to totally avoid Serial Returners, but you should have some methodology in place to identify customers who are likely Serial Returners, even if you do the full review manually. It’s the very best way to protect your bottom line from unnecessary returns.

“In today’s consumer-led retail environment, intentional returning could spell disaster for retail business owners if they do not have visibility over regularly returning customers,” Brightpearl CEO Derek O’Carroll explained in a statement. “Without this, retailers will struggle with the definition and consistent application of their returns strategies—and could face a resulting backlash from shoppers.”

The post What’s A Serial Returner + Do You Have Any? first appeared on Smart Returns.

The example cited was Burberry, the iconic British luxury brand, which destroyed $38 million worth of unsold and returned items in the last year, bringing its five year total loss due to destruction to $400 million. Burberry argues that this behavior protects the brand, but others would say that it’s an incredible waste of product and opportunity.

Burberry is far from the only retailer making decisions for its unsold merchandise that might be less than optimal. Maybe it’s time for you to re-evaluate your company’s returns policies to better identify where you’re missing chances to engage and re-engage your shoppers.

Your Returns Experience Optimizer

Reverse logistics is a difficult puzzle for most businesses.

You have to have a return policy of some sort, otherwise customers are less likely to take a chance on your products. But you also need to slow the backflow of goods because it’s costing you a fortune.

Don’t throw your hands up and despair, run down these checklists to ensure your returns experience is optimized:

My customers know that they:

• Can return their products within a window that’s neither too confining, nor too loose.
• Will get a refund quickly so they can then make another purchase, if so desired.
• Won’t be hassled, but will be asked why they don’t want to keep the item being returned.

My company always:

• Takes advantage of technology like smart label tracking to better anticipate returns volume day to day.
• Uses software solutions to determine what path of disposal is best for each returned item.
• Moves resellable items back to inventory swiftly and those sellable at a discount to a website for clearance of out-of-season merchandise that’s still like new.
• Analyzes data points to better understand reasons items are being returned in order to lower the overall return rates.

If any of the above items are big question marks in your ledger, you have work to do to make your returns experience all it can be. It might even help you to do a walk-through of the process so you can see it from your customers’ eyes. If you simply don’t have the time or staff to manage returns any faster, you should consider hiring a reverse logistics company. They can do all of this and more, helping your business grow by using returns as a loyalty builder while minimizing their financial impact.

The post Is It Time To Revisit Your Returns Experience? first appeared on Smart Returns.

The fact is that many retailers are still feeling their way into new niches and configurations that will serve them well in the decades to come. Not only is it important for retailers to have an online presence like the digital shops that are trying to outcompete them, it’s even more important that they reach back to their roots to find the branding message that’s central to their core being.

It might sound a little overly dramatic, but unless retailers set themselves apart, people will stop shopping in physical stores.

Branding a Retail Shop Through and Through

Branding can be literally anything.

It could be the way all the retail employees wear blue shirts and carry around tablets hoping to help someone buy an electronic device or the decor, music and energy that a store creates. The one thing that “real-life” retailers have over eCommerce shops is that they have physical, tangible spaces. Within these, the retailer can create a unique experience that can’t be had online, or anywhere else, for that matter.

But that means that branding has to get serious for retailers. Your shop needs to take every opportunity to reinforce the image you hope to impress on your customers. In this increasingly niched world, it’s important to identify your people and what it takes to attract them to the store again and again. Otherwise, you’re just another stop in the supply chain.

Advantages Retailers Have Over eCommerce

There’s no question that retailers have some specific advantages over eCommerce shops when it comes to customers.

Beyond the customer experience detailed above, there are certain things you can do in a physical shop that you can’t in an eShop, including:

• Trying on clothing for a proper fit. Online clothing shops suffer some of the highest levels of returns, often due to poor fit or descriptions that fall short of the item in the mind of the buyer. Being able to try on those items in real life can ensure customers are buying the right size and colors, eliminating the hassle of returns for retailers and shoppers alike.
• Examining items with your own senses. Just like the clothing conundrum, buying almost anything in a store gives a shopper a more accurate feel for what it will be like in their space. Whether it’s a table or a bottle of dish soap, there’s a lot of sensory loss when things are bought online.
• Choosing your own items for purchase. Grocery and other food deliveries are becoming hugely popular with customers who are already accustomed to buying things online. However, many still refuse to skip the grocery store because they want the opportunity to choose items that have natural variances, like meat and produce, by their own standards.

People are absolutely still shopping in physical stores, but many are using technology to help them navigate the aisles. Your best bet to keep them coming back is to provide them with the information they want, the branding they love and the experience they deserve.

The post Are People Still Shopping In Physical Stores? first appeared on Smart Returns.

It’s almost as if not doing it will somehow curb the crushing wave of returns that are a part of eCommerce in every sector. Instead of ignoring, denying or simply procrastinating about returns management, it’s time to embrace it and learn how to use it to your advantage.

Reverse Logistics Can Create Extra Income Streams

You know that not every item that comes through your facility is going to be perfect and there’s always a risk that said items will be damaged in transit.

It only makes sense to have a returns processing team in place to handle the inevitable merchandise homecomings. Beyond simply keeping customers happy and providing them with an absolutely excellent customer experience, being ready for the items that are being returned can be a path to new income streams.

Instead of throwing away that iPad that was DOA, your reverse logistics team can connect with a refurbisher and get it up and ready to go again. Or, for really serious cases of DOA, the same team could recycle that product for the value in its components. You simply don’t have to eat these losses anymore. All you have to do is find channels where your less than perfect merchandise can be sold on the secondary market.

Creating a Greener Imprint Impresses Customers

There’s another angle to consider, depending on your customer base.

For many companies, the ability to embrace a greener attitude also helps increase sales and drives up customer loyalties. Not moving your defective products straight to the local landfill makes them feel like you’re a steward of the environment, and that your company has the same concerns about pollution and waste management that they do.

There’s also a very real possibility that manufacturers and retailers alike will soon be responsible for the cradle-to-grave life cycle of every product that crosses their doors. This means you’ll be expected to maximize the use of every item, even defective ones, until they can no longer be useful within the circular economy. Implementing greener reverse logistic practices today not only saves you money, it makes you look like a hero to your shoppers. And, if you do have to bear the responsibility for those products one day, you’re already practiced and ready.

Reverse logistics matters so much to your business today and will continue to be a vital factor going into the future. From extra revenue to extra great environmental PR, your returns management team is a great way to really impress in today’s retail world.

The post Why Reverse Logistics Matters So Much To Your Business first appeared on Smart Returns.

If you sell anything that requires informational labeling, it may be high time to consider something a little bit different: How about a SmartLabel?

The SmartLabel is Made for Smartphones

By scanning a QR code on the side of a package, customers can instantly access all the information that they could ever want about your product.

In this era of information-based sales over persuasion-based sales, the SmartLabel may well become King. You know shoppers are already Googling that information, this new type of label allows you to control the conversation.

With SmartLabels as a part of your marketing, you’ll be able to meet shoppers where they are, finally. Although a company that sells cosmetics, for example, isn’t required to disclose the ingredients in the same way food manufacturers are, making that same information available can be a goodwill gesture to people who may be on the fence.

It will be an enormous undertaking, that’s not a question. But, marketing to Millennials is a whole different kind of effort than marketing to their parents and grandparents. They’re tech-savvy and they don’t bother with sales pitches. Either they want the item or they don’t. Making the facts available online and focusing more effort on creating attractive, eye-catching and accurate packaging is going to be the key to maintaining a fruitful relationship.

SmartLabels Aren’t for Everyone

Again, the SmartLabel isn’t a mandatory part of the new law, this is just a good time to make major changes to your packaging since everybody else is going to be doing it. But these special QR codes are not for everyone. There are many cases where you may not want anyone to know too much about what you’re selling.

For example, if you’re less than proud of the ingredients in your cleaners, you may want to just keep on going and forget the QR code ever existed. The SmartLabel is designed with consumer transparency as its first priority.

Other manufacturers are concerned that because of the standard format that the data behind the SmartLabels take, their company branding will be lost in a sea of look-alike tabs. This is a valid point, but, remember, you got that customer to your package so you’re very close to getting that package in their shopping basket already. Your branding worked its magic, SmartLabel or no SmartLabel.

Customers’ are increasingly difficult to reach because of ad blockers, cord cutting and the fall of print media, but they still look at product packaging each and every time they go to the market. This is your big opportunity to connect with them on their level and meet them where they are. Sometimes all it takes is a QR code on a SmartLabel to make a lifetime customer.

The post The Connection Between Customers’ Behavior And Your Packaging first appeared on Smart Returns.

There’s always room for improvement, especially if you’re not using real-time data to track your supply chain or handle your inventory management. Data can help you tighten up any aspect of your company, from order management to reverse logistics, if you implement it correctly.

Efficient Retailers are Successful, Thriving Retailers

Today’s retailers and eCommerce companies have access to an unprecedented amount of information on their day-to-day operations, as well as those of their supply chain.

Instead of simply guessing at what’s happening to their delayed shipments, they can plug in directly to the shipper and get a real time update or reroute those deliveries to other warehouses in the hopes of speeding up the ship-to-customer process. This is just one of many examples of how real-time information can help a business like yours not only succeed, but really grow in this eCommerce-centric economy.

Here are some other areas where you can use real-time data to improve processes, reduce costs or improve the customer experience:

• Optimizing your inventory. Keeping items in inventory too long can become a costly game, but not having enough product on hand to fill orders in a timely fashion will seriously impact the customer experience. What’s a retailer to do?Real-time data can help you learn how to accurately predict demand and forecast what types of products are likely to be hot, or not. This way, you can get rid of items that are simply dead weight and fill your inventory with just the right number of high margin winners.
• Reducing materials expense. Real-time data also allows you to see real-time material costs, and compare those costs as your manufacturing processes progress. So, you may end up working with multiple suppliers in order to get the best deals on your products, but it’s just a matter of clicking a few buttons to select the best price that week.Real-time reporting and visibility also can help push those materials cost down industry-wide, since your suppliers know you’re constantly shopping their competition.
• Improving returns management. Returns management has long been a challenge for retailers, especially operations that handle many different kinds of inventory. That’s where real-time data products like the smart label come into play.These things make handling reverse logistics a piece of cake. The instant that a return with a smart label is scanned by a shipper, you’ll get a notification and your reverse logistics team can start tracking the package and prepare for it to arrive. The day it comes, they already know what should be inside and how the customer wants to receive their credit. As long as everything checks out, that product can quickly re-enter your inventory and be resold with as much value intact as possible.

Real-time information has revolutionized the supply chain and the way that both retailers and eCommerce businesses operate. With so much data so easy to access, you can really increase your efficiency and make your business grow like you’ve never dreamed was possible.

The post Use Real-Time Information To Increase Efficiency, Grow Your Business first appeared on Smart Returns.

Not only do good experiences with returns help improve customer retention, which opens all kinds of doors, field research by MIT actually demonstrated hard evidence of significant profit increases with lenient product-returns policies that favor the customer.

Profiting From Customer Returns

MIT wanted to know if companies were better off with a strict returns policy that favored themselves or one that was more lenient and favored the customer, so they examined two very different strategies within the same company to see how customers would respond.

What they found was telling. Customers responded positively to a more friendly and easy returns policy. Even though the average return increased to $67.90 from $20.50 per customer per year under the company’s standard strategy, the average number of new customer referrals increased to 1.6 from 0.8 per customer per year.

More importantly, the average profit per customer per year rose from $247.58 to $302.36, a full 22 percent increase! Note, this was based on a non-optimized company strategy. MIT estimated that under an optimized, ideal company strategy, profit could have risen as high as $371.34 during the same period. Under the strict returns policy, the most profit the optimal model predicted was $254.56.

The MIT study was only considering direct profits from increased purchases due to a breakdown in the psychological barriers to purchase. They didn’t look at additional revenue sources that returns management companies can generate, like refurbishing returns that are damaged, recycling items that contain precious metals or reselling outdated items to a secondary or foreign market.

Your Repeat Customers are the Most Profitable

If you think about it, a good returns policy and team can really help you encourage repeat customers.

People won’t come back if they’re afraid what they buy can’t be returned or exchanged if it doesn’t meet their expectations, after all. Data analytics company SumAll found that a customer who has bought from site once has a 27 percent chance of coming back and once they’ve shopped three times, they’ve a 54 percent chance of buying again. Adobe Systems discovered that those repeat visitors generate about 40 percent of your revenue, even though they only make up an average of eight percent of your visitors.

It would seem that being ready and willing to accept returns works in the favor of your business, even though it’s not necessarily an intuitive move. It probably doesn’t hurt to add that 70 percent of shoppers will buy something additional when returning an order in person and 45 percent will when processing a return online. It seems customer returns can lead to greater profits in a lot of different ways, especially if you have a great reverse logistics team!

The post How Customer Returns Can Lead To Greater Profits first appeared on Smart Returns.

A really good returns process backed by an excellent reverse logistics team can make a dramatic difference in your number of sales and your bottom line.

If you’ve not designed your returns process to be easy, here are some ways to streamline it right now:

• Make it easy for your customers to initiate the process. So many eTailers seem to secretly believe that hiding the returns process will somehow make it impossible for customers to return their orders.What they’re really saying to their shoppers is “I’m not going to service you after the sale.” Instead of forcing shoppers to call or email for instructions, trust your customers and let them initiate the process through your website.
• Collect some basic information, but no more than necessary. It’ll help your returns management team to collect some information up front, but don’t force your shoppers to write a novel about why they’re returning an item.A simple form with basic information like their contact information and what they’re returning is more than enough to start the reverse logistics machine before the package even arrives back at your facility.
• Provide a return label or schedule a pick-up. As an eCommerce retailer, you need to be able to provide a helping hand with shipping. Giving customers a label they can print and stick to their package, or better yet, including one with every shipment, and even allowing them to arrange a pick-up from your shipper can make returns go faster.Instead of customers having to hunt for a UPS or FedEx drop-off site, a driver can pick up that box from their stoop tomorrow morning. Returns like this go faster, your customer get their credit faster, and that item returns to inventory faster. It’s a total win-win.
• Keep the customer in the loop. Ultimately, you can have the best, most streamlined returns process in the world, but it can still be a great big failure if you forget to include the customer.Like you, they want to know when their package is received, when it’s processed, and when their credit is due. Remember to include a customer web portal to ensure they’re able to access their shipment at any time, day or night.

Streamlining your returns process can make your reverse logistics process easier and your customers happier. Instead of waiting until the last minute, shoppers are more likely to send orders back right away, and you’ll know exactly what’s coming to your door with a quality returns process.

The post 4 Ways Your eCommerce Retail Site Needs A Streamlined Returns Process first appeared on Smart Returns.