What: Including the post-purchase experience in the evaluation of the customer journey

Why it is important: 95% of shoppers say that the handling of their returns affects their decision to purchase again. A first purchase does not guarantee a repeat one.

Retailtouchpoints proposes to examine 5 alternative KPIs which measure the way returns are handled:

• Purchase frequency before return vs. after return: 84% of customers are likely to shop with a retailer again if they are satisfied with the return experience. This indicator should therefore be helpful to measure up the efficiency of the process, and make sure that a portion of customer acquisition investments is not wasted on external factors such as a poor return process,
• Refund vs. Exchange: obviously, exchanges are better than refunds, therefore this indicator is key as it impacts profitability,
• Return rate and negative reviews: correlation might not be automatic, however, it might help to track customers who were not satisfied, left a review but did not care to return the product. How does this matter? Even though on the short run the profitability is not impacted, such customer might be lost on the long run.
• Percentage of calls regarding returns or refunds: a permanent tracker of return performances,
• Speed of returns: this is key in a customer-first strategy.

Five KPIs That Tell you Everything About Your Returns Customer Experience