Roughly 20 percent of all products purchased online are returned. Brick and mortar stores aren’t spared either, although the returns are lower at 9 percent.
As a business owner, you know the impact returns can have on your bottom line. A returned order not only affects customer satisfaction, but it can also turn out to be a lost sale since some customers can ask to be refunded their money.
As such, you must find effective ways to keep sales returns as low as possible. But how do you do that?
We’re here with the help you need. Continue reading to learn some of the measures you can take to reduce product returns and keep your profits trending upwards.
Get the Product and Address Right Every Time
This is by far the simplest way to reduce sales returns. In fact, a product should never be returned to you because it was the wrong order sent to an incorrect address. Yet, this happens way too often, especially in businesses that process lots of orders every day.
If you have an in-house order fulfillment department, you really have no excuse for mixing up deliveries. This is an issue that can be fixed with proper internal process quality control.
If your orders are fulfilled by a third party, however, there’s isn’t much you can do beyond ensuring you outsource the task to a reputable company.
Use Quality Packaging
A customer can decide to return a product on delivery if they notice the packaging is torn, broken, or damaged in any way. Using quality packaging, as well as ensuring proper car during transportation, goes a long way when you’re looking to keep sales returns low.
Help Customer Purchase the Right Items
Sometimes a customer will return an item simply because it doesn’t fit them. Especially if your store sells clothing items and shoes, you can expect customers to purchase an item thinking it’s their right size, only for them to find out that it doesn’t fit.
If you’re an online business, you can offer digital tools that help customers with sizing. Even clear product descriptions can help ensure customers are buying an item that fits properly.
Build an Efficient Returns Process
In any product-based business, returns will always be part of life. However hard you try to prevent product returns, the most you can achieve is a reduction – not an elimination.
As such, it’s imperative to build an efficient returns process – a process aimed at hastening the returns and safeguarding customer satisfaction. Central to your returns process is a returns policy. Ensures the conditions under which a customer can return a product are clear.
You should also look into implementing RMA processing.
Keep Sales Returns Low to Protect Your Profits
Sales returns are bad for everyone involved. The customer’s experience is negatively affected and it can be a reason to take their money elsewhere. As the business owner, your sales can take a slump if you don’t keep an eye on the returns. Implement these measures and you’ll see a reduction in product returns.
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