As a customer, returns are great. Knowing that you have the freedom to return something if you don’t like it can be a huge relief. On the other hand, as an e-commerce business owner returns can be absolutely awful.
Returns can be costly in so many different ways: return shipping, losing the sale, having to dispose of the returned product if it can’t be resold, etc. Plus, customer returns can feel like a bit of insult. Why are they making the return? Did they not like your product? What’s wrong with it?
On top of all of this, if you’re processing returns yourself it can be time consuming and frustrating.
Here are few tips on how to deal with e-commerce returns.
Write a Return Policy
The first thing you’ll need to do is actually establish an official policy. Handling each return on a case by case basis might work in the beginning but it can create frustration for you and your customers. Creating an official policy will be helpful as you begin to grow and scale your business.
When you create your policy there are a lot of things to keep in mind. First and foremost create a policy that addresses the specific needs of your company. What requirements will you put in place for customers to qualify for a full refund? If you’re a clothing company it might be that the clothes need to be unwashed with tags still on.
Make the time frame clear as well. Will you offer a full refund within 30 days? Will you offer store credit or an exchange to people who have missed the window for a full refund? This is another reason to keep your specific product in mind. If you’re selling a 60 day weight loss program with a money back guarantee you’ll probably need to have a wider window in which someone can make a return than if you were simply selling clothing.
Make sure that you’re policy is actually written out. You can look around to your competitors to see what their return policy is. This will also help you to stay competitive in your industry. A good return policy can make a difference to a comparison shopper.
Make Your Policy Clear to Customers
Once you’ve created your official return policy it’s time to make sure that your customers know what it is. There’s no point in having a return policy if your customers don’t know what it is. Making sure that your customers know your return policy can clear up a lot of headaches before they even get started.
Be sure to make it easily accessible in multiple places. A few great places to include your policy or a link to it include:
- Website footer
- Product page
- Shopping cart
Making your policy clear to customers will definitely help to create more positive interactions in the future. Nobody likes a bad surprise and not being able to make a return when you thought you would be able to is definitely a bad surprise. You might even consider including a link to your return policy in the order confirmation email.
Know the Cost of Returns
If there’s one thing about returns that you can’t avoid it’s the cost. Providing a refund means money out of your pocket. There’s also the question of return shipping. Do you pay for it? Do you make them pay for it? Do you skip return shipping altogether and give them their money back without asking for the product back in return?
The first option is paying the return shipping yourself. This is obviously just another expense and more lost money. On the other hand many companies have adopted “free returns” as a way to rope in more customers. It might help keep you competitive or it might eat up your profits.
The second option is making the customer pay for it. This can be very frustrating for the customer. It’s like they have to pay to get their money back. This could potentially mean fewer returns if they don’t feel like it’s worth the cost of shipping to get their refund. It could potentially mean bad reviews and a bad customer experience too.
The third option is letting them keep the product and giving them their refund anyways. You might not want to advertise that you take this approach but when return shipping costs more than the product itself, it can sometimes be the better option. It also makes for a great customer experience as well.
4 Ways to Reduce Your Return Rate
The best way to avoid dealing with returns is to prevent them in the first place. You know how the old saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” If you put in a little time and effort now you’ll save yourself a lot of work (and money) in the future.
E-commerce has a higher rate of returns than traditional retail because customers can’t touch, feel, try on or try out your product before they buy.
The best way reduce the amount of returns you’re getting is by helping your customer have the clearest expectations possible before they even buy.
1. Awesome Product Descriptions
Be sure to create the most in-depth product description possible in order to set up the proper expectation. Really paint a picture for them and make sure that the picture you paint is accurate. If you say that the product feels sturdy and durable when in reality it’s somewhat flimsy and cheap feeling, your customer will feel duped.
Be sure to include all of details you can think of:
- Size and Weight
- Material/ingredients
- Instructions for care
- Instructions for use
- Potential allergens
- Size guide
- etc.
2. High Quality Images
High quality images are one of the main ways to help give your customers a clear idea of what to expect before they buy. Take lots of pictures of the product from all angles and include some pictures of the product in use if applicable, or stage it in some way.
Even better is if you can include a video of the product. This can be great for clothing and accessories but it’s also a great way to show how a product performs, like a blender or gadget. Your customer can’t handle the product themselves so do it for them.
Be sure to include as many as it takes to provide the full picture so to speak. Use your judgement, 20 might be too many but is three really enough? You be the judge. If you need to pay someone to take good product pictures, do it. Bad lighting can change how a color appears on screen which can create confusion when the real thing doesn’t look like what’s on your website.
3. Customer Reviews
People want to hear what other customers thought about the product. According to Inc.com, “84 Percent of People Trust Online Reviews As Much As Friends.” Customer reviews are becoming so important in the online buying process that not having them can be a real turn off.
On top of that reviews help to flesh out their expectations. Yes you wrote a great product description but you still need to customer reviews to back you up or give a different perspective. Customer reviews help to let a person know what they’re getting into.
To prove this point a PetCo case study revealed that, “On average, products with reviews have a 20.4% lower return rate than products without reviews.” That’s a HUGE difference and one that everybody should take advantage of, including you.
4. Ask for Feedback
The last step in this process to help reduce returns is to ask the people making returns, why. This will be a huge help in figuring out what else you can do to prevent more returns from happening in the future.
The key here will be to actually listen to the feedback that people give you. This can mean changing up your description or pictures to better match the real product so that people have the right expectations. It can also mean working on your product. If people say your product is cheap, breaks easily, isn’t worth their money, you know you have a problem.
Outsourcing Your Returns Processing
The ultimate way to never have to deal with returns yourself is by outsourcing your shipping and returns processing. Dealing with returns take time and effort that you sometimes just don’t have a small/growing business.
At Ship Central Fulfillment we can take care of your all your shipping and fulfillment needs including processing your returns as well.