Is it really going to happen and will the payment refunds in the new normal? Zara has recently announced that it will charge customers for returns and more brands, such as Uniqlo and Next, are joining the initiative.
Although the majority of consumers are in favor of free returns and massively use their right to cancel the purchase contract, it seems that a change of mentality is necessary to reduce the flow of returns in order to reduce their environmental impact.
Happy shopping, happy mind
The online world has allowed everything we want to be at our fingertips. What directly influences our behavior and our way of seeing things. Running out of toilet paper? Well, you order a new one and in ten minutes there is a package at your door.
Comfort and immediacy play an important role here. However, these are not necessarily the purchases that actually give us a sense of happiness. With the largest or most luxurious purchases, our brain generates a substance: the dopamine. This substance is part of the brain’s reward system and makes us feel satisfied. Online shopping produces this substance and cause us to encourage ourselves to buy.
Conscious purchase
A purchase decision is influenced in many ways, consciously and unconsciously. Online stores are getting better at persuading consumers through testing and data collection. For example, Amazon offers various accessory suggestions to complete an order at checkout, and Zalando displays an “other seen” option when searching for a specific product. For example, if this is your first time looking for black boots, you will be given all kinds of suggestions for your size based on the searches and purchases that other people have made before you.
Awareness of environmental repercussions
While online retailers go out of their way to get us to fill as many orders as possible, there is one thing they would rather not consider: returns. However, Spanish consumers are quite prone to it; 86% often or almost always return an order when you are not satisfied. In fashion, the percentage of returns is the highest of all sectors.
Unfortunately, we are not always aware of the environmental consequences of all that “unnecessary” parcel traffic, so now is the time for both retailer and consumer to take a critical look at ordering and returns behavior.
The concern about returns is present when there is social pressure: are consumers willing to pay for their returns? The 77% of Spanish consumers state that he will not place an order online if he has to pay for the return himself. But what if this soon becomes the norm?
We can conclude that our ordering and return behavior has a negative impact on the environment, so it is not surprising that more and more stores are rethinking their policy in this regard. But, What options do we have to make our behavior more sustainable? There are several ways to make the returns process more sustainable. You can think of: making the flow of returns more sustainable, using the data to improve the purchase process and thus reduce returns or make the return costs fall on the customer. Let’s analyze all three.
Transform the flow of returns towards the ecological
If the number of returns is not reduced, we should at least make sure that the path of a packet is as sustainable as possible. Cardboard is the most environmentally friendly packaging material compared to plastic; it is easily degradable and therefore easier to recycle. Today, most products come packed in a box.
A key point is to make sure that the trade has different box sizes, so as not to use too much cardboard in relation to the product to be shipped. Shipping by air is not, by definition, beneficial to the environment. In addition and for example, in the home sector, there are enough articles that are delivered in a resistant envelope and do not need an additional box as packaging.
Smart use of returns services
The digitization It saves a lot of time in the returns process. An online returns portal that allows you to indicate the reasons for them is a service that satisfies both consumers and retailers. Especially, the Reason for return is an exceptional value for online sellers. By studying it, you can easily identify pain points and make sure you learn from past returns.
If you know why consumers return products, you can use this information to optimize the ordering experience. For example, if shoes are returned over and over again because they are too big for the customer’s needs, this insight can be used to optimize the ordering experience.
Ask customers to bear the cost of returns
A return costs an online store an average of 12.50 euros. Therefore, it is expensive to order products in several colors and then see which color is the best and keep only that one. Recover all or part of the return costs of the client represents a solution to this situation. In this way, consumers will think better about their purchases and, therefore, will be more critical when placing an order.
Research carried out in collaboration with Delft University of Technology shows that consumers react completely neutrally to a change in the law requiring them to pay return costs, in order to reduce the undesirable effects of online shopping. The only condition that consumers put is a 5 euro limit. And it is positive that retailers like Zara speak out in this regard to change the mentality of consumers.
In short, we all make more and more orders and returns so we will have to look to the future with a critical vision. The use of returns data and the use of mandatory costs are smart means of influencing a returns process in a sustainable way; Let’s hope more online businesses follow Zara in its decision to reconsider returns.
Rob van den Heuvel is CEO and co-founder of sendcloud
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