I've been working in this space for a couple of years and the biggest problem is that no one person or function owns the holistic problem of returns. To that end, the parable of the blind men and the elephant springs to mind, with each function only seeing (and trying to solve) their part - with some unintended consequences e.g. making returns easier is good for customer service, but very bad for logistics and finance who have to deal with increased volume and cost.
Returns is just retail in reverse, but it's treated as a side of desk issue for everyone to figure out in isolation.
It's why it's such a fascinating challenge - every brand will have a different flavour of it. It's another paradigm shift to factor into the never-ending "transformation" of the sector, and needs retailers to get out of their siloed, "see a problem, buy a solution" mindset and instead work as a cross-functional leadership team to rethink what it means to be a retailer post-pandemic.
It very much depends on the brand - core customer segment, product mix, geos, online/in-store footprint/ratio etc. are all key considerations. So while it's not particularly valuable to talk about specific solutions, we should first better understand all sources of the problem and then build/buy accordingly. This involves working together as a mission-based returns "tiger team", combining knowledge of customer, product, B&M, logistics, supply chain, warehousing, finance, the whole lot.
For example, let's say we're a fashion & apparel retailer. We need to reduce and improve the experience of returns through a combination of services, simultanously targeting all common drivers of our flavour of the problem (I've added a few illustrative ideas for services - happy to elaborate further!), starting with 3 questions:
- why do our customers return? (remove the need to return through fit right first time, style checker, reassurance nudging, sustainability nudging, in-store after-hours events, etc.)
- how can we make returns easier for our customers without an exponential increase in costs? (after hours drop-off, home fitting-room service)
- how can we lead by rethinking returns entirely? (earn rewards by selling on to another customer, donate forwards to charity, repurpose what we buy to reduce waste, develop products that work for rather than against a circular economy)
So we stop playing Whac-A-Mole with point solutions, delivering an orchestrated, multi-faceted evolution of our customer journey and our customer proposition, built around the fact that our business is no longer one-directional and linear, it's an ecosystem where products and money continuously flows between us, our customers, and a variety of 3rd parties.
You said you're investor in ReturnGo - how does it differ from Redo's approach, and why did you invest? And I liked the promising results of the green nudging, what is the reason more retailers haven't implemented it?
The provide a comprehensive solutions to help firms better manage returns. They don't currently have the feature of return coverage (which redo does), but they will have soon. Why did I invest? I don't think the current solution solve the issues of returns and I trust the founders to continuously iterate until they help better solve the issue.
I've been working in this space for a couple of years and the biggest problem is that no one person or function owns the holistic problem of returns. To that end, the parable of the blind men and the elephant springs to mind, with each function only seeing (and trying to solve) their part - with some unintended consequences e.g. making returns easier is good for customer service, but very bad for logistics and finance who have to deal with increased volume and cost.
Returns is just retail in reverse, but it's treated as a side of desk issue for everyone to figure out in isolation.
It's why it's such a fascinating challenge - every brand will have a different flavour of it. It's another paradigm shift to factor into the never-ending "transformation" of the sector, and needs retailers to get out of their siloed, "see a problem, buy a solution" mindset and instead work as a cross-functional leadership team to rethink what it means to be a retailer post-pandemic.
Completely agree. What do you envision a cross-functional solution to look like?
It very much depends on the brand - core customer segment, product mix, geos, online/in-store footprint/ratio etc. are all key considerations. So while it's not particularly valuable to talk about specific solutions, we should first better understand all sources of the problem and then build/buy accordingly. This involves working together as a mission-based returns "tiger team", combining knowledge of customer, product, B&M, logistics, supply chain, warehousing, finance, the whole lot.
For example, let's say we're a fashion & apparel retailer. We need to reduce and improve the experience of returns through a combination of services, simultanously targeting all common drivers of our flavour of the problem (I've added a few illustrative ideas for services - happy to elaborate further!), starting with 3 questions:
- why do our customers return? (remove the need to return through fit right first time, style checker, reassurance nudging, sustainability nudging, in-store after-hours events, etc.)
- how can we make returns easier for our customers without an exponential increase in costs? (after hours drop-off, home fitting-room service)
- how can we lead by rethinking returns entirely? (earn rewards by selling on to another customer, donate forwards to charity, repurpose what we buy to reduce waste, develop products that work for rather than against a circular economy)
So we stop playing Whac-A-Mole with point solutions, delivering an orchestrated, multi-faceted evolution of our customer journey and our customer proposition, built around the fact that our business is no longer one-directional and linear, it's an ecosystem where products and money continuously flows between us, our customers, and a variety of 3rd parties.
That's my vision anyway :)
You said you're investor in ReturnGo - how does it differ from Redo's approach, and why did you invest? And I liked the promising results of the green nudging, what is the reason more retailers haven't implemented it?
The provide a comprehensive solutions to help firms better manage returns. They don't currently have the feature of return coverage (which redo does), but they will have soon. Why did I invest? I don't think the current solution solve the issues of returns and I trust the founders to continuously iterate until they help better solve the issue.