Retail news that keeps industry pros in the know
Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.
Of all the challenges that retailers face, none has them reaching for the Tums so much as returns misbehavior by their customers, according to a new survey from Loop, a returns, exchanges, and reverse logistics platform.
Asked to select among trends that “have the most significant impact on your company today,” 53% of US respondents chose returns fraud, followed by returns policy abuse (42%) and high operational costs (36%). Loop defines fraud as behaviors like lying about products not arriving or purchasing with a stolen credit card, then getting the refund applied to another card Among behaviors it defines as returns abuse are wardrobing—ordering something intending to wear it, then returning it—and claiming items are defective when they’re not, in the hope of getting a refund or discount.
Loop surveyed 600 retail professionals in June in the US, the UK, and Australia.
One shop stopping: Retailers walk a tightrope when it comes to returns misdeeds, trying to treat their customers like they’re always right at the same time they’re policing them.
Asked to rank the challenges in addressing the problem, the top selection, chosen by 52%, was “maintaining a good customer experience,” followed by determining whether a customer was being “fraudulent/abusive or just picky” (44%) and detecting the misbehavior before it occurs (38%).
In another report earlier this year, Loop surveyed 1,000 online shoppers, and 39% admitted that they or someone they knew had engaged in either fraudulent, abusive, or unfavorable behavior—the latter including bracketing, or the practice of ordering multiple items in varying sizes and colors and intending to send all but one back.
Asked what measures would be most effective at getting them to curb the behaviors, 37% of shoppers said charging for returns would make them stop, and 26% said they would if they were warned the behavior would either get them banned from the store or subject them to legal action.
Getting personal: The latest report recommends that retailers take a more individualized approach to combat the problem rather than adopting broad, draconian measures.
“Personalization is just as valuable when processing returns as it is elsewhere in customer engagement,” it states. “Brands should modify their return policy or go as far as blocking returns from those identified to knowingly committing fraud, while not impacting the experience of the average shopper.”