When Customers Return Goods, You Lose Time, Money, and Effort

Don't Strongly Encourage Returns

I know what you are thinking: "Who in their right minds would encourage returns?" Well, you will be surprised! Repeated mentions of "return anything, anytime, for any reason," certainly encourage customers to return. I have seen an ecommerce player in the apparel space that actually encouraged customers to order more than they need, try stuff out, and return what doesn't work!

Several ecommerce businesses do not seem to mind the lack of profits. By the same token they do not seem too worried about the large proportion of returns either. But the last ecommerce player standing will be the one that follows basic commonsense economics: the proportion of returned goods should be lowered as much as rationally possible.

Don't Strongly Discourage Returns

This would sound like a contradiction, given what I already said. But I do believe that customers should have an avenue to return goods, though I reiterate that encouraging returns is going too far.

Customers Reject Products for Many Reasons

If I were to evaluate returns rationally, I would assume that customers return goods because the:

• goods are defective
• wrong product was delivered
• product was delivered too late.

All of these are valid reasons for rejecting products. But in my experience, these constitute a small fraction of the reasons that goods get rejected. The most common reasons are based on the whims of the customer. I feel pretty confident that more products get returned because of buyer's remorse than for any product related defect.

Verified Cash on Delivery, If At All

In some territories, cash on delivery is a pretty popular mode of payment. And a customer who has to pay cash upon delivery is doubly likely to reject the goods for no apparent reason. Having to part with money, when one already has some buyer's remorse, could put paid to any chance that the delivery would be accepted.

Work Hard on High Return Categories, Such as Shoes

Despite my repeated mentions of buyer's remorse, there are some product categories where returns are very high. One such category is: shoes. Merely the knowledge of the shoe size does not guarantee a good fit. The proof of a good fit can only be obtained by wearing the shoe. And that leads to a lot of returns.

There Will Be Some Returns No Matter What. Don't Sweat It

Though I keep speaking about the ills of returns, don't sweat it too much. Some returns are unavoidable, and there is no way you can completely eliminate them.

Get Your Reverse Logistics Right

Once you accept that some returns are going to take place, go ahead and ensure that your reverse supply chain is in good shape. Ensure that you have the right systems in place to collect the goods from the customer, sort it, and take it to its logical destination. In some cases that would mean returning it to the vendor. In other cases, you would send it back into your warehouse to be sold to someone else. In still other cases you would end up disposing it off as used goods.