Four ways to save money on returns
For retailers that sell online, an unexpected upside to COVID-19 came in the form of increased eCommerce sales. Unfortunately, it brought an avalanche of returns with it. In fact, items purchased online are returned 3-4X more than in-store purchases.
The spike in returns doesn’t need to wreak havoc on your bottom line, though. This blog explores how you can significantly cut reverse logistics costs in four major ways with a comprehensive returns solution in place.
4 ways to save with a comprehensive solution
When you work with a true end-to-end returns solution, you have an opportunity to significantly cut reverse logistics costs in four specific ways:
Aggregated shipping for in-person returns
Retailers avoid the costly and wasteful practice of individual shipments when they:
Collect returned items in-store or at a third-party location;
Aggregate multiple items in one container;
Efficiently ship items when containers are full.
As an example, when items are dropped off at Happy Returns Return Bars, they’re commingled inside reusable totes with merchandise from other brands. They’re then shipped to a regional Return Hub, which drives down the per-item shipping cost. The items are then sorted by brand, processed, and reaggregated for bulk shipment back to the retailer, reducing costs even further.
2. Lower carrier rates for mail returns
As shipping volume rises, companies are able to negotiate better carrier rates. Since we do a lot of shipping at Happy Returns, we’ve earned low carrier rates that reflect the combined return volume of 100s of customers. We pass along low rates to customers who use our returns software.
3. Regional routing to decrease shipping distance
Shipping items back and forth across the country not only prolongs the time shoppers wait for refunds, driving up calls to customer service, but it is also expensive. Instead, consider using intelligent, automated routing of returns by mail to nearby hubs – like Happy Returns regional Hubs. These provide a shorter, less-expensive hop from customer to the point of processing and aggregation, reducing the time to refund and enabling bulk shipping from the Hub back to your facility.
4. Intelligent processing makes restocking easy
A returns solution isn’t solving all of your returns challenges if it doesn’t include the processing of items. At our Return Hubs, utilizing our in-house, best-in-class software, expert teams sort, inspect, and process items for resale - saving you time, money, and manpower. Our tech tracks the status and location of every item as they are re-aggregated and bulk-shipped back to your warehouse, where all you need to do is scan and put away.
Andrew Pease
Chief Financial Officer
Andrew Pease is the Chief Financial Officer of Happy Returns. Previously, Andrew served as the Chief Financial Officer at Brighter (acquired by CIGNA) and Telescope. Before that, he was the Vice President of Finance and Planning at Disney Interactive.
