In today’s competitive marketplace, customer loyalty is worth more than the amount you save by not offering returns. And customer loyalty is dependent on their end-to-end experience with your business–including their returns experience. In recent reports, 92% of consumers say they are more likely to buy from a retailer again if they had an easy returns process. On the other hand, 84% of customers say a bad returns experience will cause them to leave. 

That makes a perfect returns experience non-negotiable for ensuring customer loyalty. 

Logistics data: The foundation of a perfect returns experience 

A perfect returns experience is hassle-free. All the customer needs to do is initiate a return, print the label, get it picked up (or drop it off), and get their refund. Making this process seamless, however, takes a tremendous amount of effort. There are several barriers that the merchant needs to overcome and some considerations that are necessary for a successful returns experience. 

Logistics data is at the core of these barriers and considerations. A smart delivery experience platform shares important logistics updates with customers. This approach can ensure a good post-checkout experience for your customers because it lets them know exactly where their orders are. And it’s critical to apply the same transparency to the returns process. 

Returns visibility is important to your customers because they want to know when they will get their refund. If you can release their refunds early, your customers get the opportunity to repurchase from your online store. 

Your returns management solution can also automate key steps in the returns process. The first step is to configure the solution with your returns policy. From there, you can automate approvals, rejections, or escalations. 

Automation is key to letting your business offer self-service returns. Self-service is more convenient for your customers, and it frees up your customer service teams. That’s because they don’t spend time starting the returns process, gathering information for validation, and issuing refunds.

Convenient self-service returns with a unified look and feel

Do you send your customers to an external website for delivery and returns updates? If that’s the case, your customer journey with your brand and business could be broken. To keep your customers’ post-checkout experience seamless, their entire journey should be kept entirely on your website. Once your customers check out, it’s much easier for them to return to your website to check on the status of their delivery or returns instead of being sent to a third-party returns site. 

A self-service returns page offers customers convenience, and can be an additional channel for upselling or cross-selling.

When customers return to your website, your business benefits as well. Your brand will be kept at the top of your customers’ minds throughout the entire customer journey from checkout to returns where you can upsell or cross-sell with other products. With notifications, the benefits are further amplified. Notifications keep your customers emotionally engaged throughout the returns journey and can be another invaluable channel for upselling or cross-selling your products.

Let your customers define their own returns experience

One of the biggest advantages of digital returns is the opportunity to let customers return items on their own terms. For instance, a returns solution that’s part of a delivery experience platform can be loaded with multiple options for shipping. One of the most in-demand options are drop-off points. A well-connected platform would most likely be integrated with the carriers you work with, and can display all the drop-off points offered by your carriers from the start. 

A key advantage of drop-off points is that they are more widely available, so your customers can choose to drop off their returns at the closest and most convenient location without having to plan in advance. Alternatively, your returns solution can also be configured to offer options like in-store returns, exchanges, partial refunds, discounts, or store credits, which can help recapture revenue. 

With refunds automation in place, your returns solution can even release refunds before the returned item reaches your warehouse. That way, your business can offer customers the exact type of returns experience they want so they are more likely to buy from you again–and turn a potential loss into reclaimed revenue. 

Sustainability is an increasingly important option for customers

For customers who are conscious about the sustainability of their journey with your business, digital returns also let you provide a label-less returns experience. With labelless returns, your customers’ orders are shipped without labels, which reduces paper waste. If and when they decide to return an item, all they need to do is print the on-demand label or use a QR code to initiate the returns process. 

Provide flawless support to prevent customers from falling through gaps

Automation helps reduce manual intervention from your customer service teams. However, they still play an important role in the customers’ returns journey. There will be times when a customer’s returns request is escalated because the system is not able to automatically approve or reject those. When requests are escalated, your customer service teams can step up with impeccable support. 

A digital returns solution helps your team stay one step ahead with information at their fingertips. They have ready access to order, returns requests, and tracking data which can be used to quickly resolve problems or prevent customers from initiating a returns request in the first place. If any issues appear during the returns process, your team can use the same information access to quickly identify and overcome the problems that can lead to WISMR (where is my refund) queries. 

When your customer service team is empowered to resolve returns problems quickly, your customers are more likely to trust your business–and are more ready to spend again. 

Use data to continuously upgrade the customers’ returns journey

Creating a perfect returns experience is an ongoing process. Once your returns process has been implemented, the race is on to keep up with consumer preferences. Your returns solution’s  flexible policy configuration lets you update your policy according to shifts in consumer preferences. However, understanding what you need to update takes data–and lots of it. 

This is where a digital returns solution’s analytics feature comes into play. Analytics uses the abundance of returns data (returns volume, product return ratio, time to refund, etc…) to monitor and measure key aspects of your return management process. From there, your teams can derive powerful insights that can be used to identify customer and internal team pain points, bottlenecks, and opportunities in the returns management process. 

Using data to enhance the customers’ experience can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. But that’s not all. When you streamline the process, your can also achieve outcomes such as reducing return rates, optimizing inventory and logistics, and enhancing product quality and fit. By leveraging returns analytics, your e-commerce business can turn returns into a competitive advantage and a source of customer delight.

To find out how you can get started with Parcel Perform's digital returns solution, request a personalized demo with one of our e-commerce experts today.