Research from Newmine, Incisiv, and Coresight was recently spotlighted in Retail TouchPoint's article How Returns Drag Down Sustainability Efforts (and what Retailers can do About it). See what Mike Relich, co-CEO of PacSun, has to say about returns:
But as consumer and financial pressures mount, it’s clear a change is in order. “When a customer returns something, what does it mean? It means as retailers we failed that customer,” said Relich. “Did we have wrong copy? Do we have bad photography? Did we not describe the product correctly? That all results in a reduction in lifetime value for the customer. Rather than retailers just focusing on driving comp sales, you need to go and look at returns, because it’s probably one of the lowest-hanging pieces of fruit to increase profitability.”
If retailers take the time to understand why a return is happening, it can actually present an opportunity to mitigate the problem. “Not all returns are bad,” said Bhasin. “If a consumer is returning a product, and it is due to, say, product quality, or some other issue that the retailer can learn quickly from and take corrective action, it can prevent future returns.”
For retailers, the first step toward action is getting a complete picture of the causes of returns. This requires a consolidation of organizational data surrounding returns, which is more possible than ever before thanks to advancements in AI, analytics and automation technologies.