A Retailer’s Guide to Returns Has Landed!

It’s no secret that product returns are having a staggering effect on retailers. During the Covid-19 pandemic, customers sent back more goods than ever before due to impulsive pandemic purchases and not being able to see goods in person before purchasing. 

At the start of 2021, we released our first “Returns in Retail” whitepaper, mostly looking at how businesses were handling the returns process during such unprecedented times. Now, two years later, we have reassessed the same 100 merchants and their returns strategy to see how much has changed during this time. Are businesses adapting to the ever-changing shopping habits of consumers? And what does the future of returns look like? 

We’ve gathered key insights into the customer journey and looked at which retailers have nailed the returns process… and those who haven’t. 

We look at:

• Returns policies & the rights of the consumer
• How the returns process can vary between retailers
• Returns and the environment
• Returns and customer retention
• The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on returns

Featuring merchants such as Boots, Marks & Spencer, Argos and many more, along with expert insights from BigCommerce, Brightpearl, Akeneo and more key ecommerce partners. 

Here’s a little preview of what we found:

• In 2022, 53% of retailers offered free returns.
• The average returns period was 44 days.
• We saw an increase of brands mentioning returns in the header or footer to 92%, yet there was a drop to just 4% in merchants mentioning returns in their main body or homepage.
• Just 14% of retailers included a printed returns label with the product.
• The fashion industry has had a 32% increase in brands offering free returns.
• The longest returns period was 365 days and was offered by four of the retailers: Ikea, Decathlon, Face Theory and Typo.

Want to know more? Get your FREE copy of “The Point of No Return : A Retailer’s Guide to Returns” now!