Establishing a brand is always difficult. But when your business is purely online and is operating in retail — one of the most competitive and commoditized of all sectors — the challenges are greater still. How can you build customer trust and lay the right CX foundations without physical interaction or visits to a brick-and-mortar store?
One of the most effective (yet often overlooked) means of creating a customer connection and providing site visitors with the confidence they need to make that initial purchase is your return policy. Get it right and you can fast-track your CX, but if you get it wrong or design it to suit your business needs first and customer expectations second, then you’ll still get noticed, but potentially because of negative online comments, reviews and declining market share.
From logistics issues to shipping costs, there are numerous factors that are going to impact a brand’s ability to be generous or comprehensive when it comes to a retail return policy. So, even if you want to make the customer king, that definition of royalty is going to be shaped by the time, finances and resources at your disposal.
Nevertheless, irrespective of cash flow or capitalization, one step all online brands can take first is to minimize the need for customers to return items.
Map the customer journey
Examine website navigation and ensure it’s simple for customers to move from touchpoint to touchpoint on their path from consideration to purchase. This is about more than clear signposting or ergonomics. It should be about clarity of description and presentation of goods on sale. For clothing, sizes need to be accurate and placed in a wider context and backed by images and video, if possible. The goal is to provide as much information as possible to aid a visitor in making an informed decision.
Make it easy to make decisions
For organizations selling products or devices, one of the biggest reasons for a customer returning the purchase is because it didn’t meet their needs. This is why in recent years, using comparative grids on websites where a choice of similar products is automatically assessed side by side has grown in popularity.
For products or devices that are sold at a premium, think about taking this one step further by offering proactive customer support, whether through chat or co-browsing. As well as helping the customer arrive at their decision, it’s a proven means of reducing cart abandonment rates.
And while all of these options are good ideas, and each can make a positive difference, the steps your brand needs to take to reduce returns should be influenced primarily by existing data and customer feedback. Use ratings, comments, survey results and social media posts to guide efforts and prioritize work.
Clarity
Once your website has been optimized for clarity and ease of decision making, you really start to hone and optimize a return policy. And, just as with shaping the path to purchase, existing data and customer insights should be used to steer the direction and even language of that policy.
The goal should be to make that policy fair, unambiguous and simple to use from the customer’s perspective. Clarity and transparency regarding how a process works and if there are costs or time limits involved will cultivate trust and give consumers the confidence to become first-time customers. A return policy doesn’t have to be cost-free. But any costs need to be front and center.
Time limits
In an ideal world, you would give the customer as much time as needed to return an item. But this just isn’t practical. In most countries, an item sold in a brick-and-mortar store can only be returned within a month of purchase. Nevertheless, try to be generous and aim for a two-to-three-week window wherever possible. Also think about and factor in the added complications of buying and returning items during the holiday season and potentially craft a separate policy for that time of year with a larger window.
Pricing
Amazon set the gold standard with free returns. However, not all retailers are in a financial position where this is possible. But aim to make the process as inexpensive as possible for the customer, especially at the start of the relationship. For instance, allow free returns for first-time customers, for products or goods that could be considered big ticket items, or if the return is part of an exchange because an item is faulty or the wrong size and the customer wishes to purchase a replacement from your site.
One way of reducing the cost is to ensure processes are efficient and streamlined. This could be giving customers the option of prepaying for return shipping in the checkout phase and including the shipping labels in the package. Or it could be partnering with organizations so that customers can access package drop-off or collection points that negate the need for posting or shipping.
Tracking
Customers want to be informed, and you need to be able to keep track of your merchandise, so clear and timely notifications are a must. Whether that means creating a portal where customers can track the status of deliveries and returns or using automated systems for push notifications at each touchpoint once the return policy begins. Again, it comes back to clarity and transparency.
Positioning
Make sure that the return policy is prominently displayed on your website and included in all marketing materials, especially in campaigns aimed at attracting new customers.
Benchmarking
As customers start using the return policy, the resulting data will point to potential improvements from an operational standpoint. But don’t stop there. Actively solicit feedback from customers and use those reviews to make customer-facing changes. Likewise, while you shouldn’t blindly follow your direct competition, it is good practice to check what their policies are and use them as a benchmark for assessing your own.
Have a retail return policy that meets customer needs
Simple changes to a return policy can make a potentially huge difference in the online retail space. In competitive sectors where customer interaction is digital and trust is harder to build, a return policy that aims to meet customer rather than operational needs will help convert more site visitors into first-time customers and will help to build brand loyalty and advocacy over time.
For more strategies on building customer trust and a positive CX in retail, read “Winning in retail & e-commerce: The best practice guide for CX success.”