L.L. Bean, looking to expose more shoppers to its iconic, century-old mix of outdoor apparel and gear, is expanding its wholesale partnerships, opening new stores in the U.S. and Canada and launching a French-language website north of the border as well. The retailer has signed wholesale partnerships with Moosejaw and Dillard’s, adding 66 storefronts, plus four new owned locations.
How can retailers leverage costly ecommerce returns into a sales tool? It’s an interesting question, given how retailers wrestle with the avalanche of costly returns. Some have remade returns into a customer loyalty campaign, while tech-savvy companies are taking the returns experience to the next level with AI and computer vision.
Here is a look at the building blocks that have enabled retailers to turn a negative experience into a positive opportunity for additional sales.
A seeming disconnect between fewer last-order promise dates and faster holiday delivery times is explained by the rising popularity of buy online, pickup in store, according to an annual survey from Kurt Salmon. This season, 53% of retailers didn’t offer a last order promise date to avoid disappointing customers.
Retailers lowered the bar for Christmas season fulfillment, then easily cleared it, according to Kurt Salmon. Ninety-three percent of retailers tracked were able to process and deliver customer orders by the last guaranteed delivery date. But 33% of them ditched their last order promise date as Christmas approached.
Sixty-one percent of U.S. retailers said they would consider banning serial returners as Amazon has done to combat the growing wave brought on by over-generous policies, according to a new survey from UK ecommerce software firm Brightpearl. In the UK, 45% of retailers said they would consider doing so.
As merchants search for ways to contend with the behemoth of Amazon – which accounted for about half of ecommerce sales in 2017 – many are focusing on the last mile, returns and outsourcing to battle back. This MCM Outlook report, based on our annual survey of Multichannel Merchant readers, looks at trends and stats in all three areas.
Nearly a year after signaling changes, iconic outdoor clothing manufacturer L.L. Bean is now limiting its returns window to a year after purchase and requiring proof of purchase. See why the company made the move, and how some customers are reacting.