Product Returns

Demand sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in 45 percent growth for e-commerce in Q2 of 2020, accounting for over 16 percent of total retail sales. For years, e-commerce sales hovered around just 10 percent of overall retail sales, while in-store shopping remained consumers' primary shopping method. As the world was stuck at home and…

Soon after the holidays are over we shift from the season of giving to the period of returns. The 2021 returns period post-holidays was different from others; extended return deadlines caused a massive backlog with regards to shipping and processing. In addition to the extended deadlines, retail companies such as Walmart made it easier for…

At least 2 million new customers visited Kohl’s stores last year thanks to an Amazon.com returns service that the department store chain offers nationwide, reports CNBC. According to Kohl’s, a third of these new visitors were millennials. Kohl’s began accepting Amazon returns at 10 of its stores in the spring of 2017. By the summer…

If you asked your favorite clothing brand if it knew the body measurements of its customers, the answer would likely be no. In fact, not many apparel brands or retailers do, and this lack of insight results in poor-fitting clothes, increased returns, and far too much wasted product. Amidst a global pandemic that has wreaked…

Returns cost retailers hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Return rates continue to rise each year as a result of online shopping, customer-centric return policies and, now, COVID-19. Since the onset of the pandemic, consumers are avoiding stores and shopping online even more than before. In fact, eMarketer predicted online sales to grow by…

In this episode of Retail Right Now, Total Retail's Melissa Campanelli and Kristina Stidham discuss an article recently published on Total Retail titled, “Bracing for the Returns Avalanche,” authored by Andrew Hogenson of Infosys Consulting. Hogenson discusses the influx of product returns that retailers are currently dealing with following the 2020 holiday season, especially considering…

The retail industry is on the tipping point of a catastrophic returns tsunami following this holiday season. With the fast-growing e-commerce market and steady consumer migration to digital shopping platforms over the last few years, returns have been quite unsurprisingly on the rise. In 2019, retailers were overwhelmed with a staggering $41 billion value of…

Walmart has launched a service that enables customers to schedule a return for a product bought online, in-store or from a third-party vendor. The new free service, called Carrier Pickup by FedEx, allows customers to initiate their return process on Walmart's website or app, schedule a date for pickup, and print a label. Then it will…

Explosive online shopping growth forces Moosejaw to gain increased visibility into customer shopping behaviors

A couple years ago retailers set a series of events in motion that inadvertently created one of the industry’s biggest challenges: how to manage the exponential rise in product returns while also meeting customers' high expectations. As it stands, artificial intelligence (AI) may be the only solution. How it Happened It all started with pure…