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.

Sometimes a return is the path to a whole lot of purchases. In fact, after a customer has bought something from you, they’re 27 percent more likely to buy a second time and 54 percent more likely to choose you a fourth time.

How you handle those customers’ returns can definitely influence whether or not they make those subsequent visits, whether you’re an online retailer or are still working the brick and mortar. Because repeat customers spend more than first time buyers, ensuring those first time buyers (and the old ones, too!) are happy with every step of the process is paramount.

Wow ‘Em Today for Long Term Success

It may surprise you to learn that small changes can have huge impacts on how your customers view you, but it’s absolutely true.

Reverse logistics can be rough for your team and costly to your bottom line, but it’s part of being a retailer. Let the process work for you by tweaking your procedures a little bit, rather than fighting it.

Here are three ways to wow your customers during their returns process:

Open up your return policy. Sure, it seems that having a small window in which to send returns back would make the most sense to minimize the practice, but for many online shoppers it’s a serious turn-off. Packages take a while to ship, plus those buyers probably have other things going on that could prevent them from even opening your box right away.

A return window of 45 to 90 days not only takes the pressure off of the customer to make a decision about an item that might not be perfect, it also gives the endowment effect a chance to click in place. Essentially, this means that the customer has formed an attachment to the item because it’s been around long enough to become familiar. So, in essence, by giving shoppers more time to decide, you’re actually encouraging them to keep their item rather than sending it back.

Keep lines of communication open. It should go without saying, but some retailers are very bad at letting the customer know what’s going on with their returns. This process can be simplified by adding a smart label to each shipment. That way, not only will you know where the incoming package is and when it should arrive at your facility, you can give your customer the same information.

Give credits as fast as possible. There are some larger retailers that issue credits as soon as they see that the item in question is in transit. This might not be feasible for your company, but providing a timeline using the data from that smart label you put in the box will keep your customer happy as long as it’s reasonable. You can’t wait weeks to issue the credit, but a few days after the item has arrived will keep most customers coming back for more.

It’s not enough in today’s market to simply be impressive when it comes to forward-facing logistics, you have to do better when it comes to returns. It doesn’t matter how fast your packages reach their destinations if the buyer is left hanging when they need to return or exchange them. Don’t let them down. Wow your customers all the way through your returns process.

The post 3 Ways To Wow Your Customers At Every Step Of The Returns Process first appeared on Smart Returns.

This part of the supply chain gets a lot of attention for constantly innovating and finding new ways to increase both speed and efficiency. What fewer people, even business owners, pay attention to is reverse logistics, the processes by which returns are managed and credits are processed.

When it comes to the reverse side of logistics, there’s plenty of evolution occurring, as well.

Change for the Sake of the Entire Supply Chain

It’s a big responsibility to hold the fate of your supply chain in your hands.

When it comes to returns, it can really feel that way sometimes. There’s not really room for error. That’s why the best returns management teams are pushing the industry to innovate and improve.

Here are a few items getting some real attention:

Return policies. Not only are many returns policies more lax than they have been in the past, they often don’t require that the buyer return the item at all.

If it’s an inexpensive product, many retailers will send a replacement rather than take on the burden of all that shipping. For other items, like computers and phones, self-repair options may be available. Both of these routes cut out the need for the item to come back to the warehouse, reducing the product volume on the returns floor.

Optimizing internal processes with data. Grading returned products is now being assisted by software capable of creating and tracking data points.

When the sorter is unsure how to sort an item, they simply input the parameters into an app and it grades the item. A different part of the system can also help reduce returns by tracking reasons for returns, which in turn helps retailers to avoid the predicted pitfalls ahead.

Rethinking transportation. A lack of long haul space, as well as the increasing cost of the last mile has really driven costs for shippers. When you’re picking up the tab for a return, you want to minimize that expense if only to stop the bleeding.

For companies that deal in large items, combing a delivery with a pickup has been a practice for some time, this way they only have to go out once. But even small items are being collected in a smarter way. Reverse logistics are increasingly being given their own centralized return centers, putting returns management on the same level as forward logistics. Receiving products faster is just as important as shipping them faster.

Reverse logistics is the key to everything retail. Either you have it or you don’t and you’re going to be left in a cloud of dust. Improving the speed of every step of the process means better service for customers and more value retained for retailers.

The post 3 Ways Reverse Logistics Is Evolving To Meet Needs Of Customers, Market first appeared on Smart Returns.

Whether that team comes from within your organization or you find extra help from a company that specializes in returns management, the results can spell huge leaps for your customer service.

Why Reverse Logistics Matter to Customer Service

You want to provide your visitors with increasingly good customer service, but there’s only so much you can do if you continue to focus your efforts at your front end, where orders are processed, and ignore the back end, where they’re returned or corrected.

In a recent white paper by McKinsey & Company, online customers revealed that they continue to rank the returns process among the most important. That being said, these are just a few ways that good returns management can influence your customer service and your bottom line:

1. Giving customers credit for their returns sooner. One of the most frustrating parts of returning an item to many shops is that it can take an impossibly long time to get credit for items that have never been worn or even opened.Often, customers return items that are simply the wrong color or size and want an immediate replacement, not to have to wait indefinitely to replace a gift or special purchase. A faster reverse logistics response means a faster credit and a much happier customer.
2. Making customers feel like you’ll be available to fix their problems. Many online shoppers are wary of eCommerce stores that either don’t have clear returns policies or have terrible reputations for returns handling.It’s not as if they go into transactions assuming things will go badly, but sometimes a product arrives damaged and it’s no one’s fault. A strong commitment to reverse logistics as a part of your customer service effort goes a long way to repairing damaged customer attitudes and enticing new shoppers.
3. Ensuring a smooth returns process. Returning a product through the mail is one of the most frustrating things ever. A shopper has to find a place to drop the parcel, possibly even having to arrange home pick-up if they’re a busy mom or have a disability that makes it hard to get in and out of the house on a whim.Once the package is on its way, that same customer is watching for updates breathlessly until the day it finally arrives at your building and you give the customer a credit. If you can create a hassle-free experience by doing things like including a free shipping label and allowing shoppers to return their items directly to one of your stores, you’ll decrease the hassle factor inherent to returns and create happier customers.

Reverse logistics and your customer service aren’t separate things, they should really be regarded as two sides of the same coin. After all, you want your customers to be happy whether they’re buying or they have the misfortune to need to return an item. Both can be accomplished with ease and grace, but you’ll need to focus hard on having those mechanisms in place now before it’s too crazy to add anything new to your system.

The post Reverse Logistics & Your Customer Service first appeared on Smart Returns.