How to Handle Web Returns in Business Video

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How to Handle Web Returns in Business

Ivy Hartman: Now, the way your small business handles returns might have a bigger impact on your bottom line that you may have originally thought. And joining me today is Jordan Colletta the Vice President for eCommerce Marketing for the world’s largest small package delivery company UPS. Jordan you know returns are big, big deal when it comes to being a small business but our small business owners are doing it well, do you think? Jordan Colletta: You know I think it really depends. I think what happens with returns Ivy is that many, many companies don’t really look at them and address them almost in a strategy development approach. You know they’ll work really hard on what products are you going to make available, where they’re going to make them pricing and all of the important things around you know making your small business go. But when it comes to the returns, it hasn’t necessarily made the radar screen in a lot of instances which sometimes can add up to miss opportunities. Ivy Hartman: Let’s talked about that you’re probably speaking of adding up you probably have some good numbers for us as far the impact that returns have on businesses. You guys recently commissioned survey through Forester what were some of those findings? Jordan Colletta: We did. Well, you know one of the things that really was surprising is that 80% of the consumer said that they would repeat their business and be more loyal to a company that made returns easier. So it’s really interesting all of the sudden now you have you know those whole dimensions of returns coming in front and center instead of it being just something you just have to deal with just because you have to deal with it. Ivy Hartman: And now depending on your small business does in your shipping a return policy and the way you manage you strategies, does it vary by product? Jordan Colletta: You know I think that’s a great point, it really should. Ivy Hartman: Okay. Jordan Colletta: Right, because you know how you react to that return when one of your costumers stands up and says “I want a return to those” and how you treat it could result in another sail or it could result in a customer who never wanted to do business with you, so let me give you some examples. Ivy Hartman: Right. Jordan Colletta: So friends of yours, if you have items like clothing as an example, right. You have a higher probability that that items going to come back. It might be too small, it might be too big, what exactly the color. You have some like of TV. It’s probably unlikely it’s coming back or someone didn’t get what they expected. There are probably other reasons why they're returning it. So how you react to those two, you know it’s an important factor into your strategy. And then what do you do now in order to make the experience as good as it possibly can be. Ivy Hartman: What are some of the strategies that you would recommend that came out of the survey as far as you know it was 83% saying that they would actually shop more loyally because if they had it, the small business had a good return policy, so do you have any strategies and solutions for a small businesses? Jordan Colletta: Yeah, we have some considerations and in here they are. First of all, if you have items that are going out and you’re coming back. Don’t assume first of all that it’s the receivers or the costumer and costumers fault if the survey found that a high number of instances of returns were actually because the item itself wasn’t the right item, it wasn’t proper. So couple of things to consider, not only checking and make sure you have quality control as things leaves the back door. But also think about it in terms of how you describe the item on your website. Have it ultimate views, have a real—good descriptions. There’s a number of ways you know to use the website I assume that this part were talking about you know the small businesses that are doing some of the business for the other website. But how you describe those items on the site could be really important. So there is one piece. Here’s another item, if you know you're going to some instances that they're to come back I mean you can wait for the email to come in or the phone to ring. As a small business you don’t have enough time to really do what you need to do in the first place. So anytime that you’re spending doing, you're not doing other things that would help you grow your business. So if you know you're going to have a return you know you allow return. Then maybe be able to anticipate to how that returns going to come back and control it and not spend so much time executing is important. One example would be you may want to take your return label and put it in the box. If you're going to take any of that back but why spend the time taking the phone call or the email. Right, so that that might be one piece of your strategy if your goods or you know those types of items. I think on the other hand, you're selling things like televisions and such. You probably don’t want it to come back so part of your strategy might be, I want it, and I want it to stay delivered if it can. You know, PC’s might fall into that same category. And here your strategy might be, well you know you can't make a costumer keep it but you might be able to encourage the costumer to keep it because it might be better for them to keep it than fear of bring it back. So an example might be someone who bought that PC and they have it and they really want to return it, it might make some sense to offer them something else to keep it. As example from a free router all of the sudden the value proposition around the purchase changes and they’d be more intent to keep and by the way they're probably very loyal there after because of the way you managed that that return. Ivy Hartman: So costumer service obviously as the survey found out plays a big role in your return services and manageability there. When we talked about—it impacts the bottom line by having those return customers and that loyalty. But from UPS standpoint, when a small business owner and says “I'm going to accept returns via my shipper UPS” how much I mean, can we take a big chunk out of my bottom line or to offer that monetarily to my customers? Jordan Colletta: Well, you know I think what you need to look at you know it’s like anything else as you start fine tuning the business is make a determination of what point can you offer these things like it’s capabilities like returns and then how does that drive a loyalty. So for instance, because you're going to take returns doesn’t mean you have to returns across every costumer, right? You could do that across certain costumer’s maybe the ones that you know most often buy from you. Just be careful because more than likely as you start tweaking the returns policies you are typically affecting those costumers that are more frequently shopping online. But again I think you could look at segments of costumers if you have that kind of data. I think the other thing you could do is you could look at other ways to encourage a sale. An example might be you know you have something they're going to return and you’ll say I’ll take it back. You know one key is make sure you manage return. Have it come back for you at the carrier you know you’ve selected don’t just let it arbitrarily if you put in somewhere or you might actually be increasing your return cost because of who the costumer chose. But let me get back to this other piece. It might be that you give them a credit to come back to your website in order to purchase something else. So there is a number of ways you can handle how the actual refund is going to be delivered. You know you don’t want to be restrictive but you certainly can encourage something that might have helped you repeat a sale. Ivy Hartman: Jordan, I understand that UPS is testing a new program that might make returns a little easier for small business owners and consumers. Jordan Colletta: We are as a matter of fact right now we are starting a pilot with the US postal service. And the pilot, the intension of the pilot is really to bear out you know as you add convenience and access points how does that effect returns in the business of getting returns easily moving. Ivy Hartman: Right. Jordan Colletta: So as an example of the US postal service has a 160 million access points which by the way include consumer’s mail boxes. Ivy Hartman: My very own mail box right on top, hanging on my house. Jordan Colletta: That’s right, and that will be added to the two million access points that UPS currently has which includes the UPS driver, the UPS store and so on. So, the great thing about this it brings those two together and now those costumers who want to get something back via UPS and essentially drop it off at any one of those locations and UPS driver will end up bringing it back to the small business. Ivy Hartman: That’s awesome, so if you can't get to a UPS access point you can just use the US postal service. Now this isn't available to everyone yet so talked about who it’s available to right now? Jordan Colletta: Right, we have a number of hand selected companies that we’re going to go ahead and pile it with because ultimately we want to really bare it out to make sure that it’s viable, it’s meaningful, it's helpful and then we know get all the tweaks worked out. And after we go through the pilot then we’ll make a decision and are we going to roll it out because it is meaningful or are we not going to roll it out. But once we make that decision obviously we’ll make sure that we get that information out to the viewers so that they know that the service you know if it becomes a service would be available. Ivy Hartman: Certainly sounds like an exciting program. Returns are no longer an afterthought in your small business. Now you can develop a return strategy in order to increase sales and costumer service in your small business. If you’d like a complete look at the UPS returns portfolio you can go to UPS.com. Also if you want more information about the force or research that UPS commission you can go to UPS.com/white board.

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Ivy Hartman: Now, the way your small business handles returns might have a bigger impact on your bottom line that you may have originally thought. And joining me today is Jordan Colletta the Vice President for eCommerce Marketing for the world’s largest small package delivery company UPS. Jordan you know returns are big, big deal when it comes to being a small business but our small business owners are doing it well, do you think?

Jordan Colletta: You know I think it really depends. I think what happens with returns Ivy is that many, many companies don’t really look at them and address them almost in a strategy development approach. You know they’ll work really hard on what products are you going to make available, where they’re going to make them pricing and all of the important things around you know making your small business go. But when it comes to the returns, it hasn’t necessarily made the radar screen in a lot of instances which sometimes can add up to miss opportunities.

Ivy Hartman: Let’s talked about that you’re probably speaking of adding up you probably have some good numbers for us as far the impact that returns have on businesses. You guys recently commissioned survey through Forester what were some of those findings?

Jordan Colletta: We did. Well, you know one of the things that really was surprising is that 80% of the consumer said that they would repeat their business and be more loyal to a company that made returns easier. So it’s really interesting all of the sudden now you have you know those whole dimensions of returns coming in front and center instead of it being just something you just have to deal with just because you have to deal with it.

Ivy Hartman: And now depending on your small business does in your shipping a return policy and the way you manage you strategies, does it vary by product?

Jordan Colletta: You know I think that’s a great point, it really should.

Ivy Hartman: Okay.

Jordan Colletta: Right, because you know how you react to that return when one of your costumers stands up and says “I want a return to those” and how you treat it could result in another sail or it could result in a customer who never wanted to do business with you, so let me give you some examples.

Ivy Hartman: Right.

Jordan Colletta: So friends of yours, if you have items like clothing as an example, right. You have a higher probability that that items going to come back. It might be too small, it might be too big, what exactly the color. You have some like of TV. It’s probably unlikely it’s coming back or someone didn’t get what they expected. There are probably other reasons why they're returning it. So how you react to those two, you know it’s an important factor into your strategy. And then what do you do now in order to make the experience as good as it possibly can be.

Ivy Hartman: What are some of the strategies that you would recommend that came out of the survey as far as you know it was 83% saying that they would actually shop more loyally because if they had it, the small business had a good return policy, so do you have any strategies and solutions for a small businesses?

Jordan Colletta: Yeah, we have some considerations and in here they are. First of all, if you have items that are going out and you’re coming back. Don’t assume first of all that it’s the receivers or the costumer and costumers fault if the survey found that a high number of instances of returns were actually because the item itself wasn’t the right item, it wasn’t proper. So couple of things to consider, not only checking and make sure you have quality control as things leaves the back door. But also think about it in terms of how you describe the item on your website. Have it ultimate views, have a real—good descriptions. There’s a number of ways you know to use the website I assume that this part were talking about you know the small businesses that are doing some of the business for the other website.

But how you describe those items on the site could be really important. So there is one piece. Here’s another item, if you know you're going to some instances that they're to come back I mean you can wait for the email to come in or the phone to ring. As a small business you don’t have enough time to really do what you need to do in the first place. So anytime that you’re spending doing, you're not doing other things that would help you grow your business.

So if you know you're going to have a return you know you allow return. Then maybe be able to anticipate to how that returns going to come back and control it and not spend so much time executing is important. One example would be you may want to take your return label and put it in the box.

If you're going to take any of that back but why spend the time taking the phone call or the email. Right, so that that might be one piece of your strategy if your goods or you know those types of items. I think on the other hand, you're selling things like televisions and such.

You probably don’t want it to come back so part of your strategy might be, I want it, and I want it to stay delivered if it can. You know, PC’s might fall into that same category. And here your strategy might be, well you know you can't make a costumer keep it but you might be able to encourage the costumer to keep it because it might be better for them to keep it than fear of bring it back. So an example might be someone who bought that PC and they have it and they really want to return it, it might make some sense to offer them something else to keep it.

As example from a free router all of the sudden the value proposition around the purchase changes and they’d be more intent to keep and by the way they're probably very loyal there after because of the way you managed that that return.

Ivy Hartman: So costumer service obviously as the survey found out plays a big role in your return services and manageability there. When we talked about—it impacts the bottom line by having those return customers and that loyalty. But from UPS standpoint, when a small business owner and says “I'm going to accept returns via my shipper UPS” how much I mean, can we take a big chunk out of my bottom line or to offer that monetarily to my customers?

Jordan Colletta: Well, you know I think what you need to look at you know it’s like anything else as you start fine tuning the business is make a determination of what point can you offer these things like it’s capabilities like returns and then how does that drive a loyalty. So for instance, because you're going to take returns doesn’t mean you have to returns across every costumer, right? You could do that across certain costumer’s maybe the ones that you know most often buy from you. Just be careful because more than likely as you start tweaking the returns policies you are typically affecting those costumers that are more frequently shopping online.

But again I think you could look at segments of costumers if you have that kind of data. I think the other thing you could do is you could look at other ways to encourage a sale. An example might be you know you have something they're going to return and you’ll say I’ll take it back. You know one key is make sure you manage return. Have it come back for you at the carrier you know you’ve selected don’t just let it arbitrarily if you put in somewhere or you might actually be increasing your return cost because of who the costumer chose.

But let me get back to this other piece. It might be that you give them a credit to come back to your website in order to purchase something else. So there is a number of ways you can handle how the actual refund is going to be delivered. You know you don’t want to be restrictive but you certainly can encourage something that might have helped you repeat a sale.

Ivy Hartman: Jordan, I understand that UPS is testing a new program that might make returns a little easier for small business owners and consumers.

Jordan Colletta: We are as a matter of fact right now we are starting a pilot with the US postal service. And the pilot, the intension of the pilot is really to bear out you know as you add convenience and access points how does that effect returns in the business of getting returns easily moving.

Ivy Hartman: Right.

Jordan Colletta: So as an example of the US postal service has a 160 million access points which by the way include consumer’s mail boxes.

Ivy Hartman: My very own mail box right on top, hanging on my house.

Jordan Colletta: That’s right, and that will be added to the two million access points that UPS currently has which includes the UPS driver, the UPS store and so on. So, the great thing about this it brings those two together and now those costumers who want to get something back via UPS and essentially drop it off at any one of those locations and UPS driver will end up bringing it back to the small business.

Ivy Hartman: That’s awesome, so if you can't get to a UPS access point you can just use the US postal service. Now this isn't available to everyone yet so talked about who it’s available to right now?

Jordan Colletta: Right, we have a number of hand selected companies that we’re going to go ahead and pile it with because ultimately we want to really bare it out to make sure that it’s viable, it’s meaningful, it's helpful and then we know get all the tweaks worked out. And after we go through the pilot then we’ll make a decision and are we going to roll it out because it is meaningful or are we not going to roll it out.

But once we make that decision obviously we’ll make sure that we get that information out to the viewers so that they know that the service you know if it becomes a service would be available.

Ivy Hartman: Certainly sounds like an exciting program. Returns are no longer an afterthought in your small business. Now you can develop a return strategy in order to increase sales and costumer service in your small business. If you’d like a complete look at the UPS returns portfolio you can go to UPS.com. Also if you want more information about the force or research that UPS commission you can go to UPS.com/white board.

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