Shoppers love try before you buy (TBYB), a growing strategy that lets them order multiple items and send most of it back. It can boost ecommerce sales but also balloon return rates. So how do you take advantage of the TBYB opportunity while escaping the potential pitfalls that can kill your margins? An expert panel explains how.
Studies have shown that ecommerce backorders can cost you $15 to $20 each, eroding profits. This includes customer service calls, fulfillment labor, shipping and packing material costs. Also, backordered items often have a higher return rate. Here are 8 practical solutions to help you reduce ecommerce backorders and stockouts.
FedEx has partnered with discount retailer Dollar General, offering dropoff and pickup services at 8,000 Dollar General stores by the end of 2020, giving it rural penetration it lacked. Along with its own stores and partnerships that also include Walgreens, Kroger and Albertsons, FedEx now has a network of 62,000 locations.
Five months after investing in two-day ecommerce delivery and returns service ShopRunner, UPS is partnering with the company, offering a year’s free subscription to the 47 million U.S. members of its My Choice program. ShopRunner’s 100+ retail partners include Ann Taylor, Bloomingdale’s, Chico’s and Kate Spade New York.
As online sales grow at double-digit rates, ecommerce returns are growing even faster, typically three to four times greater than for stores, and carry a high level of value. The opportunity is to get online returns from the store back to fulfillment centers quickly in order to maximize their value. Here’s how to make it happen.
The 9th annual Ecommerce Operations Summit will be held April 14-16, 2020 at the Marriott Orlando World Center in Orlando, FL, and the call for speakers is now open! If you are an industry professional with your finger on the pulse and have a great story to share with your peers, we want to hear from you!
From fast and free shipping to offering delivery choices, ecommerce companies need to be responsive and even proactive in anticipating needs, and outside partners often have the scale and expertise to make it happen. Learn how FedEx Fulfillment helped Revtown and BAWLS overcome operational challenges and grow their business.
Happy Returns has received an $11 million investment from PayPal Holdings Inc., the venture arm of the payment solution company, with both pledging to reduce reverse logistics friction for merchants. The investment will also help Happy Returns toward its goal of 1,000 ecommerce returns bars by the end of the year.
A year and a half after first testing the program in Los Angeles and Chicago, Kohl’s will start accepting Amazon returns in July for free at its 1,150 stores in the 48 continental U.S. states, even without a box or label. Kohl’s says that “eligible Amazon items” can be returned free of charge.
Expanding on the success of its return bars in shopping malls, Happy Returns has created in-store kiosks where retailers can let customers do self-service returns, with a number of major chains kicking the tires as a possible launch partner. See how the solution works to solve the issues related to in-store ecommerce returns.