Many businesses have perfected their outbound logistics. Products are picked, packed, and shipped with near-perfect accuracy, and customers are delighted. But some merchants haven’t put enough thought into the question posed by Amena Ali, CEO of Optoro: “What happens when all this stuff comes back?”

In this episode of Unboxing Logistics, Amena and Lori discuss the challenges of returns—for both customers and sellers—as well as strategies for improving the process. 

How to improve the returns process for customers

As ecommerce has exploded, consumers have been “trained by the Amazons of the world” to expect box-free, label-free returns. Rather than asking customers to print labels and repackage products, Amena recommends providing convenient drop-off locations where shoppers can return unwanted items without going out of their way.

Regaining value from returned items

If it takes too long to restock and resell returned items, your business could be losing money. 

Amena estimates that “for a 100-dollar item, it can cost nearly 30 dollars to do the processing. She continues, “Speed to stock is absolutely critical. The longer it takes a retailer to manage their returns, guess what? You are missing that peak season window for that item, which means you're going to need to mark that down.”

Embracing recommerce

Returns are closely intertwined with sustainability concerns—we’ve all heard the horror stories of brand-new products ending up in landfills. To reduce waste, Amena recommends embracing recommerce.

“A lot of brands and retailers are engaging in those strategies to refurbish [products], and [they] actually have trade-in programs so you can return an item and it goes on to its next home.”

Links

• Connect with Amena on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amenaali/ 
• Visit Optoro’s website: https://www.optoro.com/
• Read Optoro's 2024 Returns Unwrapped report: https://4771362.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/4771362/Optoros%202024%20Returns%20Unwrapped%20Report.pdf