What: Business of Fashion brings the Happy Returns director and a consumer psychologist together to discuss how companies can transform customer pain points in the return process into growth opportunities.

Why it is important: Competition around having the cheapest and most convenient experience is now conflicting with CSR efforts and the financial and logistical costs of facilitating returns which has led many retailers to consider restructuring their return process.

While many customers report the importance of free returns (87% according to research by PayPal and TRC), the importance of convenience demonstrates greater importance with over 50% of customers have abandoned carts due to a lack of convenient return methods. According to consumer psychologist, Kate Nightingale, the simple act of touching a product increases the sense of ownership by over 20% which influences satisfaction when customers encounter difficulties in the return process. The sponsor of the discussion, Happy Returns, expresses the importance of in-store, package-free returns to provide a convenient and more environmentally friendly method. The stores do not have to be brand owned, however, if customers return to the store, they are more likely to purchase something.

Returns are a pain point for both retailers and customers, thus, gamifying the process for consumers can encourage loyalty and improve attitudes and thinking around returns. For retailers returns should become part of inventory management through processing returns in-store, ultimately eliminating many troublesome steps from receiving packages directly from consumers.

The benefits of improving return processes can be seen through studies and reports that show how customers who frequently make purchases tend to have the highest rate of returns and are likely to increase order frequency when the experience is efficient and positive.

Reimagining returns to drive growth