While much is being written about expected holiday sales, the flip side of retail returns is also an interesting business, with consumers returning about $264bn worth of merchandise, or almost 9 percent of total sales, according to industry estimates. But, what happens to all that unwanted or defective merchandise that doesn't make it back on the retailer shelf?
What would you do if you knew your business was going to face a loss of as much as nine percent of bottom line sales? Hopefully, you would try to avoid calamity by putting steps in place to manage the situation with a customer-friendly returns management program.
The National Retail Federation estimates that nearly $9bn was lost by merchants in returns fraud in 2012. And according to a report from ThreatMetrix, online fraud resulted in about $3.5bn in lost revenue in North America last year.
Analyst Insight: Software has become extremely effective in tracking and tracing the smallest detail. In actuality, enterprise software vendors have incorporated recall management and best practices into their software. Organizations often lack the necessary policies and procedures to facilitate reverse logistics processes, but software is not one of the deficiencies. -- Keean Persaud, Managing Director, Eval-Source