Supply and Demand Chain Executive covered Coresight and Retail Innovation Hub’s Hype Innovation Showcase. Newmine was one of a select group of retail startup innovators to join and present how reducing returns is a key part of helping retailers become more sustainable.
Data analytics can be used by retailers to reduce the number of returns from the e-commerce channel. Returns result in processing costs, lost revenue, potential landfill waste (from damaged products and used packaging, for example) and added logistics requirements—such as transportation, which increases carbon emissions. Reducing e-commerce returns therefore comprises one sustainability goal for many retailers. According to technology company Newmine, lost revenue for retailers as a result of returns is set to increase from $205 billion in 2020 to $290 billion in 2022.
Because 65% of returns are controllable, the reduction opportunity is $133 billion in 2020 and upwards of $189 billion through 2022. The company helps retailers to optimize retail commerce and reduce returns by gathering and analyzing data from multiple retail systems—merchandising, planning, product information management, product lifecycle management, order management, warehouse management, customer relationship management—as well as product reviews. Newmine uses data analytics, AI, NLP and machine learning to identify and understand the primary reasons for returns—such as sizing, product quality and misleading marketing—so that retailers can take actions to address the challenges.