Many Happy Returns
You were thrilled by holiday sales—don't be chilled by post-holiday returns.
As surely as a busy holiday season brings an increase in Web
sales, it also brings more returned merchandise. Unfortunately,
returned merchandise is a major by-product of increased Internet
growth, especially as consumers become much more comfortable
purchasing items over the Net.
"There will be more consumers returning goods purchased
over the Internet during this Christmas season than ever
before," explains Julie Breen, an e-commerce research analyst
at The Boston Consulting Group. "That's simply because
there are more goods than ever before being purchased over the
Internet."
Web shoppers return merchandise for a variety of reasons.
Twenty-five percent of customers who have returned items purchased
online say the product wasn't what they expected, according to
e-BuyersGuide.com's 1999 "Return to Sender"
Shoppers' Expressions survey. Seventeen percent of those who
returned items purchased online said the items didn't fit
correctly, and another 17 percent said the items were damaged.
Sixteen percent of respondents said the wrong items were delivered,
15 percent said they simply didn't want the items, and 10
percent said items were of poor quality.
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Not being able to see or touch a product in real life has often
been cited as one of the Web's main short-comings. However,
that kind of problem may become less prominent in time, says Irwin
Barkan, founder of e-BuyersGuide.com, an independent data services
organization in Burlington, Massachusetts. "There's
incredible technology at work in making touch, feel, color, look,
size and fit issues more user-friendly," he says. "Some
of the issues regarding these changes are [related to] the current
bandwidth and speed available on consumers' computers. It may
be a few years before the lines cross between this technology and
consumers at home."
The good news: While returns are a problem for e-tailers,
they're not a headache for customers. In the e-BuyersGuide.com
survey, 78 percent of the consumers who returned items purchased
online during 1999's holiday season described their expe-rience
with an e-tailer as "satisfactory" or "very
satisfactory." The bad news: Of the 6 percent of shoppers who
had "unsatisfactory" experiences, 62 percent said they
wouldn't return to the e-tail sites responsible as a result.
The biggest consumer complaint regarding online returns? Having to
pay return postage.
Overall, 86 percent of the survey's respondents said they
considered e-tailers' returns policies of significant
importance. What features do users like in a returns policy?
Receiving a refund as soon as the item is returned; being able to
return the item to the e-tailer's brick-and-mortar store;
receiving postal pickup at their homes; low or no restocking fees;
and being able to exchange the item for something more
suitable.
Melissa Campanelli is a technology writer in Brooklyn, New
York, who has covered technology for Mobile Computing &
Communications and Sales & Marketing Management
magazines. You can reach her at mcampanelli@earthlink.net.
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