As we approach peak season sales, optimising the returns process is crucial if retailers are to save the sale and keep items circulating in the marketplace. Big data insights into returns can provide crucial insights that manage the handling of items throughout the warehouse, sales and delivery process, as well as fixing customer experience issues and identifying ‘toxic products’.
Data insights can be invaluable to retailers, especially during peak season where sales are high, warehouses and suppliers are stretched and logistically there’s a lot to manage. There are so many things that technology can tell us. For example, it can enable retailers to allocate resources appropriately based on forecasts and trends. With resources in the right place, retailers can process returns more quickly making products ready for resale quickly.
Retailers can also route stock to different locations depending on where an item sells best, including charity donations or repair shops for damaged goods. This can reduce a retailer’s airmiles and impact on their carbon footprint. It also allows for the consolidation of returns, rather than the moving of individual returns.
Data can also identify ‘toxic products’ far more easily than manual and, lets face it, outdated processes of identification. These are items that have an excessively high rate of return and come at a greater cost to retailers. If retailers know what and when a product is being returned, proactive decisions can be made to minimise cost.
An integrated system can also impact customer behaviour at the point of return, such as offering a live exchange rather than a refund or perhaps an incentivised refund to gift card for faster refunds. If a customer chooses this option, the retailer can refund an item on first carrier scan rather than waiting for the item to arrive back at the distribution centre.
Essentially, to reduce both the volume and the impact of returns and maximise the resale value of returns, retailers need to be embracing technology and the significant big data insights it can provide. At the end of the day it can minimise unnecessary cost, reduce wastage across the board and even encourage customer loyalty.
Laura Davies
