Close Menu
  • News
  • Home
  • In Profile
  • Finance
  • Legal
  • Technology
  • Events
  • Features
  • Wellbeing & Mental Health
  • Marketing
  • HR & Recruitment
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Events Calendar
  • Business Wall
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • 0843 289 4634
X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
Trending
  • How to become a High Growth SME
  • Hospitality industry risks collapse
  • Whistleblowing and the Cost of Silence: Why SMEs Must Have Policies in Place
  • Rewiring the UK’s investment landscape with AI
  • What Swedish SME Managers Can Teach UK Businesses About Remote Work
  • The 5 biggest VC negotiation mistakes and how to avoid them
  • Entrepreneurs Circle Makes £5M move with 15,000 sq ft HQ acquisition
  • An Interview with Noreena Hertz
X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
SME Today
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Events Calendar
  • Business Wall
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • 0843 289 4634
  • News
  • Home
  • In Profile
  • Finance
  • Legal
  • Technology
  • Events
  • Features
  • Wellbeing
  • Marketing
  • HR & Recruitment
SME Today
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Events Calendar
  • Business Wall
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • 0843 289 4634
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • RSS
You are at:Home»Features»End of the Line for Returns
End of the Line for Returns

End of the Line for Returns

0
Posted By sme-admin on October 14, 2022 Features

Is the cost of living crisis the final straw for free returns? With retailers under ever greater cost pressures, even nominal returns fees will not safeguard margins. But, while retailers may fear disenfranchising customers by increasing returns costs, many consumers are increasingly looking for sustainable products and businesses that embrace the circular economy. To combat this, retailers can combine highly efficient fulfilment and returns processes with effective ethical positioning to radically reduce costs, while also boosting customer perception, argues James Hyde, Chief Product Officer & Founder, James and James Fulfilment.

 Escalating Problem

As retailers prepare for the golden quarter, the cost of returns is taking centre stage. Last year’s Christmas period James Hyde, Chief Product Officer & Foundersaw record levels of returns and, with the cost of living crisis, 2022 could be even worse. Customers are becoming more considered in their purchasing decisions – and that could lead to greater number of returns, especially within fashion.

One likely trend is that  customers may not immediately reduce order value, but then opt to keep fewer items.  Certainly ‘wardrobing’ – the act of buying a product, using it and then returning it as ‘unused’ to attain a full refund – is on the rise.

Many will also be actively seeking out better deals; while those making impulse purchases will be more likely to have a change of heart – especially if there is any delay in delivery.

The customer is, of course, not always to blame. Sometimes the wrong product is delivered. The item is perhaps not as advertised, damaged on arrival or turned up too late – all of which are valid reasons for return. Occasionally the customer will have had a bad experience with the company after making the order. These problems are all within the gift of the retailer to change – and should be a priority.

Outsourced fulfilment that leverages a single, integrated order management system (OMS), Warehouse Management System (WMS) and courier management system (CMS) can optimise operations and reduce returns. Picking and packing should be 99.9% accurate. Same day dispatch should be a given, alongside carefully managed and tracked delivery services. Ensuring every aspect of the fulfilment process is optimised and accurate will eradicate any ‘retailer blame’ reasons for returns, allowing the focus to shift towards changing customer behaviour.

 Cracking Down

Certainly, retailers are toughening up. After decades of free returns, the tide is turning with major retailers (Boohoo, Next, Uniqlo, and Zara to name a few) removing free returns this year. While the headlines focus on the need to reduce the “try-on hauls” seen on YouTube and TikTok, data is also key to both understanding trends and highlighting problem customers. Amazon and John Lewis both banned the same customer in August, after repeated returns and complaints.

Fast, accurate fulfilment data is fundamental to highlighting problems within the retailer’s products and/ or processes. Repeated returns of the same product due to small sizing, for example, can be addressed by changing the product description and adding advice to size up. Electrical items that repeatedly break are a huge financial and reputational drain and should be quickly withdrawn from sale to minimise loss.

Information is also key to addressing the inventory problems created by returns – many of which arrive weeks later, potentially damaged.  It takes time and money to get these products back into stock and ready to sell. Without live, up to the second inventory levels fed directly to the webstore, retailers will be left with unsold items – and potentially miss the key Black Friday and Christmas trading periods.  Retailers also need to better understand the true cost of returns to the business to better assess the margin on products and support merchandising decisions. Identifying if products from certain manufacturers or suppliers are more likely to be returned than others, for example, is key to safeguarding margin in the future.

Reframing Perception

Improving eCommerce processes will have an impact on the number of returns experienced. But retailers can also change their messaging and highlight the importance of sustainable purchasing behaviour. Returns are hugely environmentally damaging. In addition to increased shipping and transport, sorting and refolding are labour intensive. Plastic poly bags cannot be reused, and damaged items occasionally end up in landfill.

Levying a small return fee, alongside more cost-conscious customers, could have significant environmental benefit, while reinforcing consumers’ perception of the retailer. Furthermore, according to Deloitte, circularity  and customer attitudes towards sustainability are becoming ever more important to driving customer engagement before, during and at the end of product life.

Consumer behaviour can change: the introduction of the five pence charge in 2015 for plastic bags reduced usage by 85% in one year, and the number of bags purchased has continued to drop. Retailers can share the sustainability issues with customers. The way returns policies are considered, presented and delivered will increasingly inform customer perception of a retailer. Done well, an effective, efficient and well-communicated returns model will both reduce costs and boost reputation.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Related Posts

How to become a High Growth SME

Five steps to building a healthier sales pipeline

The Hidden Risks of Doing Nothing: What Family Businesses Stand to Lose Without a Succession Plan

Comments are closed.

Follow SME Today on Linkedin and share all the topics you find interesting
Get £100 of free trades - ii trading account

The Newsletter

Join our mailing list for the best SME stories, handpicked and delivered direct to your inbox every two weeks!

Sign Up
Events Calendar
    • Marketing
    June 5, 2025

    Why marketing budgets are wasted without sales alignment

    June 4, 2025

    Industry Shift at Royal Ascot 2025 Turns Hospitality into Serious Networking Ground

    • Finance
    June 13, 2025

    Rewiring the UK’s investment landscape with AI

    June 12, 2025

    The 5 biggest VC negotiation mistakes and how to avoid them

    • Health & Safety
    January 29, 2025

    UK takeaways guilty of shocking hygiene failures:

    December 18, 2024

    Comment on Covid Corruption Commissioner Investigation

    • Events
    May 27, 2025

    Jose Ucar Confirmed for Leadership Live 2025 Speaker Line-Up

    November 19, 2024

    Seventeenth Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW)

    • Community
    June 2, 2025

    National Charity Accelerates Children’s Reading Through New Corporate Partnership

    May 14, 2025

    Social care experts launch an online marketplace to disrupt a sector in crisis.

    • Food & Drink
    June 16, 2025

    Hospitality industry risks collapse

    June 4, 2025

    Creative Nature Launches Its First-Ever Kids’ Snack Bar Range in Tesco Nationwide

    • Books
    April 24, 2025

    Values-Driven Professionalism: A Path to Client Loyalty

    December 2, 2024

    Banish the banshee boss: how to lead without fear – addressing the issue of fear-based management and how NOT to be this manager

    About

    SME Today is published by the same team who deliver The Great British Expos’. We have been organising various corporate events for the last 10 years, with a strong track record of producing well managed and attended business events across the UK.

    Join Our Mailing List

    Receive the latest news and updates from SMEToday.
    Read our Latest Newsletter:


    Sign Up
    X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    Most Recent Posts
    June 16, 2025

    How to become a High Growth SME

    June 16, 2025

    Hospitality industry risks collapse

    June 13, 2025

    Whistleblowing and the Cost of Silence: Why SMEs Must Have Policies in Place

    June 13, 2025

    Rewiring the UK’s investment landscape with AI

    June 12, 2025

    What Swedish SME Managers Can Teach UK Businesses About Remote Work

    Categories
    • Books
    • Community & Charity
    • Education and Training
    • Environment
    • Events
    • Features
    • Finance
    • Food and Drink
    • Health & Safety
    • HR & Recruitment
    • In Profile
    • Legal
    • Marketing
    • News
    • Property & Development
    • Sponsored Content
    • Technology
    • Transport & Tourism
    • Wellbeing & Mental Health

    Copyright © 2020 SME Today.

    • ABOUT SME TODAY: THE GO TO RESOURCE FOR UK BUSINESSES
    • Privacy
    • Contact
    Copyright © 2025 SME Today.
    • ABOUT SME TODAY: THE GO TO RESOURCE FOR UK BUSINESSES
    • Privacy
    • Contact

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.