Returns Processing
RETURNS PROCESSING
Returns are the Achilles' heel of many a fine retail outfit. Apparel returns, for example, can be as high as 35%. These articles can help you minimize returns and develop effective tactics for processing them. Topics covered include reverse logistics, returns management programs, liquidation methods, and configuration of returns handling areas in your facility.
How to Streamline the Holiday Returns Process
The returns process can have a tremendous impact on the overall customer experience in retail that can lead to repeat business when done properly. Making it easier and less expensive for customers to return products allows companies to build loyalty and gain a key advantage over competitors. Here are three quick tips that can be implemented now to help retailers create a streamlined and convenient returns process. ...
FedEx SmartPost, USPS Team Up on Returns Service
FedEx SmartPost Returns Service uses the Postal Service's Parcel Return Service. Participating retailers will include a prepaid label in the original shipment along with return instructions. ...
Survey Says: Shoppers Reward Return-friendly Retailers
It will surprise no one that customers prefer to shop at merchants that make it easy to return goods. But a recent survey from returns management systems provider Newgistics backs this up....
10 Steps for Better Returns
Whether a returned item was the wrong size or was defective, you need a set of procedures for handling the product once it arrives in your warehouse. Fulfillment pro Curt Barry has a simple 10-step reverse logistics strategy. These tips can help you refurbish returns and get them back on the shelf for sale....
Reverse Logistics: Every Department's Challenge
More than 75% of all returned products are not defective, according to Gailen Vick, founder/president of the Reverse Logistics Association. Instead the primary cause of returns is “misinformation at the time of purchase,” due perhaps to misleading marketing materials or an ill-informed sales staff. The secondary factor is related: The product did not meet expectations....
Live from NCOF: Reverse Logistics Is Everyone's Challenge
Schaumburg, IL—More than 75% of all returned products are not defective, according to Gailen Vick, founder/president of the Reverse Logistics Association. Instead, the primary cause of returns is "misinformation at the time of purchase," ...
Best Practices in Returns Policies
Based on Opinion Research Corp.’s December 2006 study on retail returns, we’ve come up with a list of returns best practices that can help boost satisfaction among customers as well as your staff. ...
Spotlight on NCOF: Properly Processing Returns
This is another installment in our continuing series spotlighting speakers at the upcoming 17th National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment (NCOF),...
Fulfilling Urban's Legend
As director of distribution, Ken McKinney is responsible for all distribution, fulfillment, and transportation functions for Philadelphia-based Urban...
Getting Ready for Post-Holiday Returns
If you’re a fourth-quarter business, you’ve no doubt already inspected your warehouse systems, double-checked demand forecasts, stocked your shelves, reevaluate labor processes to optimize order fulfillment. But in addition to preparing for the holiday season’s spike in output, you also have to get ready for the inevitable return of products....
Many happy returns?
Consumers are not only getting comfortable with the task of e-tailing, they are happier and more willing to return items purchased online, according to...
Study: Simpler Online Returns Make Happier Customers
Online retailers need to view returns as a key component of consumer marketing rather than as an annoying disturbance in the supply chain....
Seven Ways to Improve Returns Processing
Everyone knows that a positive shopping experience increases the likelihood that a customer will purchase again. Returns processing is a customer contact point and as such can provide you with a competitive edge, so long as you handle it properly. That’s why returns have moved from the dark side of marketing and operations to the forefront. ...
Returns Engagement
Catalogers know that a customer making a return isn't happy with the product. But if you can quickly and efficiently process the return, you may be able...
CWD Finds Fitting Way to Reduce Returns
All catalogers would like to reduce their return rates, but Richmond, VA-based children's apparel cataloger Children's Wear Digest tries to head off the likelihood of returns even before shipping the merchandise to customers. ...
Operations and Management: Cultivating Happier Returns
For catalogers, returns are a fact of life. According to Richmond, VA-based operations consultancy F. Curtis Barry & Co., typical return rates range from...
A Proper Handle on Returns
Delray Beach, FL-based women's apparel cataloger Boston Proper two years ago developed a software system to help with its biggest inventory management...
Easy Returns Draw Repeat Sales
Retailers—including catalogers and Web merchants—are more likely to retain customers when they make returns easy and efficient, according to a survey...
A Booth's-Eye View of NCOF
THIS PAST APRIL 13-16 I attended the 2003 National Conference on Operations and Fulfillment (NCOF) at Walt Disney World's Dolphin Resort. Mickey Mouse...
Live from NCOF: Neiman Marcus Cuts Returns Costs With Service SmartLabel
Dallas based cataloger/retailer Neiman Marcus, which also mails the Horchow and Chef's Catalog titles, has reduced its returns processing costs since...
A Users' Guide to Warehousing
EVERY JANUARY AND FEBRUARY, I have the privilege of conducting the Annual Warehousing Forum with several dozen distribution and operations professionals...
Stately Pleasure Domes
Not too long ago, if you had a kiosk, it was probably a dusty old cardboard box lurking in a dark corner of your store (a far cry from what the word signified...
Up Front
I have managed many catalog fulfillment centers and toured many other facilities in my 25 years of experience. If you want to evaluate an operation quickly,...
Reverse Gear
A company may outsource all or a portion of its operations. Typically, a firm that chooses to outsource the fulfillment portion of its business does so...
