{"id":9389,"date":"2023-08-14T11:01:41","date_gmt":"2023-08-14T11:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/leadership\/return-policies-can-put-you-out-of-business\/"},"modified":"2023-08-14T11:01:42","modified_gmt":"2023-08-14T11:01:42","slug":"return-policies-can-put-you-out-of-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=9389","title":{"rendered":"Return Policies Can Put You Out Of Business"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Brands are making changes to their return policies, and customers are not happy with them. One of retailers\u2019 main value propositions is how easy they are to do business with, which includes no-hassle returns. This falls under the banner of convenience. Our annual customer experience research indicates that 53% of consumers would pay more to receive a convenient experience, and 76% would switch to another company if they found out that it was more convenient to do business with. Easy returns translate to higher levels of convenience.<\/p>\n<p>A recent RetailWire article shared stats and findings about returns. The numbers are surprisingly large\u2014in a bad way\u2014and retailers are having a hard time ignoring them. According to the National Retail Federation, last year\u2019s online returns accounted for \u201capproximately $212 billion,\u201d which is 16.5% of all online sales. That\u2019s one sixth of all purchases, a huge number that may be hard for some retailers to swallow.<\/p>\n<p>Shippo\u2019s annual consumer report, in conjunction with The Harris Poll, estimates that the cost of returns for some items comes in at 66% of the original price. The result is that retailers are changing their policies, and according to the study, 72% of customers have noticed, many\u201454%\u2014after being \u201cblindsided\u201d by the change in a retailer\u2019s return policy.<\/p>\n<p>Retailers did this to themselves. They competed on a value proposition that became a problem and at the same time became an expectation. It\u2019s like free shipping, which used to be a competitive differentiator. Now it is expected from most retailers. And that\u2019s exactly what has happened with free and easy returns. It\u2019s become a common expectation.<\/p>\n<p><fbs-ad position=\"inread\" progressive=\"\" ad-id=\"article-0-inread\" aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\"><\/fbs-ad><\/p>\n<p>Shippo\u2019s report noted the following changes that retailers are making:<\/p>\n<p>\u00b7 Requiring exchange for another product.<\/p>\n<p>\u00b7 Giving store credit instead of cash refunds.<\/p>\n<p>\u00b7 Shrinking the return window.<\/p>\n<p>\u00b7 Allowing only in-person returns.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, the Shippo report found that \u201cfour out of five American consumers (80%) say if an online retailer they regularly purchase from made their return policy more difficult, they would purchase from a different retailer with a more favorable return policy instead.\u201d That aligns with the general finding (76%) for overall convenience.<\/p>\n<p>Some companies get it. For example, Zappos, the online shoe retailer, prides itself on easy returns. They even suggest buying several sizes of identical shoes and returning the ones that don\u2019t fit. And here\u2019s the exciting part of that strategy. Zappos does not have the lowest prices, but somehow, wins its customers\u2019 hearts (and dollars) with great service and convenience.<\/p>\n<p>Zel Bianco, RetailWire brain trust member, president and CEO of Interactive Edge, says, \u201cThe e-commerce industry has made its bed, and now it wants to change the rules? Not so fast, as the potential loss of customers that switch to a different retailer is too high.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As leaders, we are forced to make big strategic decisions. Not all of these decisions will make customers happy, but that\u2019s okay. Transparency is a good start. Changing a return policy may upset customers, so tell them why you\u2019re doing it. Or raise the price to accommodate the existing policy, and again, explain why.<\/p>\n<p>So, there are two reasons (at least) return policies can put a retailer out of business: not having a friendly, convenient policy and the cost of not properly managing the liberal and easy return policy.<\/p>\n<p>Retailers must walk a fine line between the cost of convenience and the cost of losing customers due to lack of convenience. It could be as simple as building it into the price, which could work if your customers aren\u2019t focused on low price. Or maybe delivering amazing value in the form of great service, high convenience and easy returns, like Zappos does, which trumps the low price and wins customers because of the overall experience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/shephyken\/2023\/08\/13\/return-policies-can-put-you-out-of-business\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brands are making changes to their return policies, and customers are not happy with them. One of retailers\u2019 main value propositions is how easy they are to do business with, which includes no-hassle returns. This falls under the banner of convenience. Our annual customer experience research indicates that 53% of consumers would pay more to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leadership"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Return Policies Can Put You Out Of Business | Brandiary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Brands are making changes to their return policies, and customers are not happy with them. 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