{"id":2440,"date":"2017-01-13T14:03:20","date_gmt":"2017-01-13T14:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brightpearl20.wpengine.com\/3-tips-to-make-the-most-of-your-returns-data\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T12:28:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T12:28:20","slug":"3-tips-to-make-the-most-of-your-returns-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brightpearl.com\/blog\/3-tips-to-make-the-most-of-your-returns-data","title":{"rendered":"3 Tips to Make the Most of your Returns Data"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

With the holiday sales behind us, we\u2019re now deep into returns season<\/a>, and today\u2019s customers are bringing back their items with a vengeance. Last month,\u00a0<\/span>The Guardian posted a great piece<\/span><\/a> on the hidden costs of ecommerce businesses, analyzing <\/span>Barclaycard\u2019s data report<\/span><\/a> and highlighting customer returns as a revenue and operational threat.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Key statistics to call out were that 30% of shoppers are earning the badge of \u2018serial returner\u2019<\/a>; someone who deliberately over-purchases and then returns many items. In an attempt to safeguard themselves against this reality, 33% of online retailers offer free returns but charge for delivery, and 20% are hiking their prices to cover return costs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever your current or future plan may be to process or negate return costs, what can you do with the information and data collected during\u00a0inevitably unavoidable returns? <\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s 3 tips to make the most of your returns data…<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Identify your serial returners<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Use sales reporting, such as Brightpearl\u2019s Sales Analysis reports, to identify customers that have a high return rate<\/a>. Once you\u2019ve identified this lot, you can ensure that they don\u2019t receive certain marketing promotions or discounts. More positively, you can use the same means to identify great customers and send them an additional promotion!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Know your product return rates<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Looking at the same data with a different lense, you can identify your product return rates, seeing clearly which products are frequently sent back to you. With this information, you could follow the trends identified and increase prices on that item, or you could potentially reduce your efforts on that item – or more aggressively, stop selling it entirely.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Discuss your findings with your suppliers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

With an understanding on product performance, you\u2019ll be able to see if there\u2019s any particular product lines or vendors whose products are coming back more than they should be. Ensure you know this before placing your next order, so you don\u2019t blindly reorder more and repeat history. If you’re not doing so already, you can take this one step further and start capturing return reasons at the point of sale, such as \u2018Doesn\u2019t fit\u2019 or \u2018Arrived damaged\u2019. Cutting your returns data by these reasons will highlight potential vendor or supply quality issues, or problems within the fulfilment processes, or even just highlight that you need better product descriptions.<\/p>\n

The reality is that whilst things can improve, returns aren\u2019t going to just stop overnight, but they can at least be brought into view and under control through data analysis, and mitigated through an improved customer experience, product quality and streamlined processes.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  With the holiday sales behind us, we\u2019re now deep into returns season, and today\u2019s customers are bringing back their items with a vengeance. Last month,\u00a0The Guardian posted a great piece on the hidden costs of ecommerce businesses, analyzing Barclaycard\u2019s data report and highlighting customer returns as a revenue and operational threat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":3192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[113,111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-customer-service","category-ecommerce-best-practices"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n3 Tips to Make the Most of your Returns Data - Brightpearl<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With the holiday sales behind us, we\u2019re now deep into returns season, and today\u2019s customers are bringing back their items with a vengeance.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brightpearl.com\/blog\/3-tips-to-make-the-most-of-your-returns-data\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 Tips to Make the Most of your Returns Data\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With the holiday sales behind us, we\u2019re now deep into returns season, and today\u2019s customers are bringing back their items with a vengeance.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.brightpearl.com\/blog\/3-tips-to-make-the-most-of-your-returns-data\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Brightpearl\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BrightpearlHQ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-13T14:03:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-21T12:28:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.brightpearl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/3-tips-to-make-the-most-of-your-returns-data.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"789\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"390\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@BrightpearlHQ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@BrightpearlHQ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brightpearl\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brightpearl.com\\\/blog\\\/3-tips-to-make-the-most-of-your-returns-data\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brightpearl.com\\\/blog\\\/3-tips-to-make-the-most-of-your-returns-data\",\"name\":\"3 Tips to Make the Most of your Returns Data - 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