How does technology help sellers in reducing the return rate

“Alas! Too many product returns?? My product return rate is increasing. What should I do now?”

 

Are you facing the same scenario

 

Although the digital transformation in retail has brought new trends of shopping online. Still, voluminous merchants face this situation once or plentiful times in their e-commerce and retail business reign. It is no less than a so-called BAD DREAM for a merchant. However, there is not much to worry about if you are aware of the specific reason for the return rate. 

 

Technology nowadays has been developed to help the seller in reducing the return rate to much extent. Having a 0% return rate is unrealistic for some obvious reasons. Nothing is perfect. However, if your return rate exceeds 30% then it’s time to pay attention to your business strategies and processes. Keep on calculating the return rate because the return rate directly affects the net profit you earn.

 

Let us have a look at the reasons which can be a cause of a product return.

Table of Contents

Major factors that increase the product return rate

There can be numerous reasons for product return back. Some of the major reasons are mentioned below:

  1. Product Information on the website: The information added do not match the product which arrives. Or image used does not exactly match the product. Another reason can be that the product description is not complete which makes customers develop assumptions about the product. When their assumptions do not meet the reality they return the product.
  2. Product condition on arriving: Product is damaged or malfunctioning. Product damage can occur while packing or delivering. However, the malfunctioning factor can be checked before packing the product.
  3. Wrong product: Delivered products do not match the order. In this scenario, whether the product is slightly different from the image or totally a different product, both reasons result in product return.
  4. Delayed product delivery: When a product delivery gets delayed, a customer might think that company has missed sending the product. It can also happen that customer is not expecting delivery now and the parcel arrives when the customer is not at home.
  5. Customer’s change of mind: A customer can change his/her mind due to many reasons. Maybe they do not need the product anymore or maybe they want to order any other product.
  6. Fake order: An order is placed for a trial or with intention of returning it for any negative reason
  7. Change of customer’s address: While order processing the delivery address of the customer can change due to any emergency. This also results in order return when the courier boy does not find the right person to receive it.

These disputes are not too difficult to overcome. Many techniques can be used to reduce these scenarios. Thus reducing the return rate of the product. In some cases, customers can be approached to resolve the matter. Anyhow, the risk of the above issue must be lowered to avoid product return because the products never return alone. They bring customers dissatisfaction as well lowering brand’s goodwill and loyalty. Once the brand loyalty lowers, it is very difficult to regain it.

Loss of profit is another big consequence of the product return. In addition, it also disturbs the routine processes. Restocking of inventory disturbs the records and estimations. Merchant has to face numerous issues for even a single return. The factors which are encouraging product return rate must be avoided. To avoid these consequences, merchants are making use of the latest technology, some of which are mentioned below:

Read through the following 5 minutes article to get the best solution to reduce your product return rate. This is how technology is helping sellers to reduce the overall return rate of products. Thus, allowing e-commerce businesses to grow.

Order journey tracking notifications

Tech has made it easy for the customers to stay updated with their order status. Whether it is placed, dispatched or arrived, customers can view all the updated statuses of their order processing on their mobile phones or laptops. Different e-commerce businesses make use of miscellaneous software to make sure updated order statuses earn their customer trust and satisfaction. For a customer, the best part is when they have are well informed of what they purchase. When they place an order they get eager to get the parcel in exact time as mentioned. Order journey tracking notifications keep them updated all the time leaving no chance of a missed delivery. Thus avoiding product returns. Customers can even pre-inform the company if they are not available at the destination in case of emergency or they can find an alternate to receive orders timely.

Order Editing

Customers have the opportunity to contact support and let the brand edit their order after placing it. Consider if you have placed the wrong order or undesired product accidentally or want to replace it with another, you just need to contact customer support immediately who then will be able to edit, update or cancel your order right away. Conditions are always applied based on the order status. Most of the businesses do not provide this facility. The latest tech-oriented e-commerce businesses have earned high customer satisfaction through this feature, allowing customers to gain full control over what they purchase.

Faster Delivery

Faster delivery is no more an issue for an e-commerce business nowadays. Thanks to technology which has made it possible for e-commerce and retail businesses. E-com business-oriented software lets the merchant automate faster deliveries. A complete e-commerce business solution like Ginkgo Retail is perfect to keep processes smooth and interconnected through automated inter-channel communication. It helps remove flaws keeping things aligned and fast-moving. Order is auto-assigned to the most efficient courier service from a nearby location. Ginkgo automates the courier selection based on the courier’s performance in a specific area. It ensures whether the courier service is available or not. It also automates order management, inventory management, logistic management, and multi-sales channel management. In short, streamlines basic e-commerce processes and allows the merchants to think more toward increasing their brand goodwill.

Same-day Delivery

Not all but few logistic companies provide the facility of same day order delivery. But some ERPs help merchants to integrate this same feature as well to ensure same-day delivery. Same-day deliveries are not an issue now for an e-commerce business to manage through Ginkgo Retail.

Scan and ship reducing human errors

Most of the time the customers who return the order claim that the order was inaccurate or damaged. This means that the delivered product does not match the selected one. To avoid this issue, the order must be double-checked. Technology has made this possible by checking the barcodes of a product. The quality check is performed before packing the product. Tech has automated all the order fulfillment processes. Scan and ship issues including size or quality usually occur based on human error. Missed product information must be reduced to gain customer satisfaction and trust as the brand’s goodwill is dependent upon it.

Technology has helped to reduce these scan and ship errors by automating processes and double-checking the product quality and type. This ensures that the right product should reach customers with the best quality. Ginkgo provides this feature as well. Reduction in scan and shipping errors results in reducing the return rate to too much extent. As soon as the order is placed, Ginkgo automatically verifies the product through SMS, e-mail, IVR calling and then passes it out for further processing.

Real-time inventory sync

Real-time inventory sync is highly necessary for any e-commerce and retail brand. No matter if they are running one store or several, technology now has made it possible for merchants to sync inventory in real-time. Ginkgo Retail has automated this sync for the merchant’s ease and business efficiency. Suppose an order is placed on a specific brick and mortar store and delivered from the same. Inventory will be automatically updated within a few moments. It benefits merchants by reducing in-store transfer stock transfer also. And when they want to get a quick overview of their inventory, they can view it as well from the BI reporting dashboard.

Why choose Ginkgo Retail

Ginkgo Retail is one of the examples of an e-commerce business solution that has successfully reduced the 20% return rate of over 30+ e-commerce brands. Up till now, it has catered 60 Million plus orders successfully worth 17 Billion plus revenue.

It acts as an omnichannel providing a single dashboard to overview the business progress with some added benefits. Once the processes are visible to merchants, they get more confident in making newer strategies.

Give it a try and let it provide its promising service to make your business flow smoother than ever.

Above we have mentioned reasons and possible ways in which technology is helping merchants to overcome return rates. If you are a merchant and facing a high product return rate then sit for a while and enlist the main black-sheep factors which are increasing your return rate. Then match your problem with a stated solution. Test it and share your comments with us if they helped you out.