A little digging into the humble roots of JCPenney and Sears, some of the powerhouses in the retail section reveals their meteoric rise. JCPenney was a small general store in Wyoming, while Sear an equally small store in a train station in Minnesota.
Fast-forward today — these two have evolved into a powerhouse in the retail sector. What you may not know is that their success is built on having an excellent reverse logistics program. Both companies realized the value of liberal return policies that enable customers to return products at no charge. You too can follow in the lead of these giants and grow your products.
Develop consumer confidence
Customers are always looking to get the best value for their money whenever making a purchase. They want to be sure that they are not making a mistake when handing over their hard-earned cash.
Making it easy for them to ship back a product that fails to live up to their expectation eliminates this pain for them. It lowers the risk of shopping at your store since they have the liberty of bringing the product back if it’s faulty, doesn’t fit, or change their minds.
Options buoy a customer’s trust in your business as they are assured of having a quality product or their have their money back. When people trust your products and services, they are likely to become lifetime customers and ambassadors.
Eliminate troublesome products
If you’re carrying a broad range of products, having the right technology can offer insights into the performance of individual products. The best return programs feature innovative technology that lets you collect and analyze data.
You can track the products with the highest level of return as well as the reason for their return. After identifying the problematic lines, you can get to the root of the matter. You may find that product is defective and therefore decide to cut it out from your inventory.
Or you can use the data to identify a loophole in your sales process if selling your products over the internet. Eliminating any problematic steps enhances the shopper’s experience, which increases their likelihood of coming back for more.
Streamline your cash flow
Without a proper handling strategy, returned items can leave a gaping hole in your finances by lowering your cash flow. That will be the case if you have a pile of faulty or damaged product building up in a warehouse.
Such a pile amount to a double tragedy as it is holding your capital investment and costing your premium storage space. With the proper system, you sort out your returned items quickly and ship them out to the rightful destination. Shipping back faulty or damaged items to suppliers and manufacturers frees your space and workforce.
An efficient reverse logistics program is not only useful in creating an excellent experience for your customers. It can give you great insights into your business operation, which is an excellent way to shore up on your shortcomings. It can guide your efforts to streamline your business process to increase customer experience which is a great driver of business success.
