Choosing the right partner can make or break your company’s logistics, customer service, and repeat purchases. Using a fulfillment center like Shipfusion frees you from navigating the fulfillment landscape with zero stress. Below are some insights on how Shipfusion can take your business to the next level.
Online sales are continuing to grow in this current pandemic climate and as your sales grow, product returns are a guarantee. Returns don’t have to be the headache they use to– with returns comes as an opportunity to gather client feedback. Choosing a smart returns management solution can make or break your eCommerce business. Outsourcing your returns process to a fulfillment company can help mitigate problems and leverage your returns to help support the business. Along with providing a speedy return of funds it’s important to have a customer-friendly return policy that allows the shopper to return the product easily and without much extra expense.
‘Returns’ sounds simple but the process of getting items back, reviewing them and judging what can be done with the returned product should be dependent on the client’s expectations of what can be restocked and what should be disposed of– It tends to be more complicated than you think, which is why it’s great to find a fulfillment center that can automate your returns solutions for you.
Shipfusions fulfillment center will handle all returns including what information they need to handle customer transactions on the companies side.
Returns :
- Where are the returns coming from
- Who is the customer returning the item
- Information tying the original order back
- RA ( return authorization) tracking number that locks into a transaction that is relevant to the customer
- Portal allows clients to go in and create an RA for the return
- Shipfusion will receive returned item to our warehouse
Returns Break down into 2 categories; controllable returns & uncontrollable returns:
Controllable Returns: This could include preventable issues like poor packaging, product defects, shipping damage or the customer ordered the wrong item. This could be a discrepancy of how your product looked online vs how it showed up in person. There are a few things to remember when trying to handle controllable returns; improve the packaging to prevent shipping damages, work with suppliers who supply high-quality products, ensure packages are being fulfilled with care, proper order tracking so customers know when they will be delivered.
Uncontrollable Returns: These kinds of returns happen when it’s out of your control, for instance, the customer may have ordered the wrong product. Ordered the wrong size, or they may be a “ serial returner’, customers who order multiple variations of the same product to keep the one they like and return the rest. Uncontrollable returns often increase during the holiday season.
6 Return Improvements Your Fulfillment Company can help you with:
- Check Product: Shipfusion’s warehouse team will follow product instructions to check the item for refund or exchange purposes.
- Cleaning Product: Clean re-sellable products to go back into inventory.
- Photograph Product: We can send detailed photos of the returned product to your company to make a decision on whether or not to process a return claim.
- Donate Product: Collect returned products for charity pickup.
- Destroy Product: Safely destroy unsellable products. For example: food products that have spoiled best before dates.
- Disregard Product: Disregard and throw out products that are not sensitive to disposal.
Shipfusion’s return software allows for client visibility and gives the users the ability to see the entire returns transaction confirming that the right order was shipped out, the customer received the order and why the customer is returning the order. Signing on with a fulfillment center that has its own return process adds value to the client so they don’t have to deal with returns themselves.
“The benefit of us handling the return for them is that it keeps their inventory close, it means that they can still keep turning over inventory quickly,” said Scott McCarthy, Director of Client Services at Shipfusion. “The other thing that we can handle is the inbound freight aspect of it, as the consumer is creating the return, we’ve got the ability for them to be able to create an inbound shipping label for them and can connect that to their account– If the company is doing free returns, they can cover that by integrating that with our program.”
Return FAQs
What is the timeline for a return?
Shipfusion will process a return within 72 hours.
What is the cost of Shipfusion’s returns program?
We offer tailored programs to meet each individual client’s needs.
What other channels can Shipfusion’s return software plug into?
Shipfusion’s returns software can integrate with any eCommerce marketplace.
Shipfusion sets your business on autopilot and combines flexible, reliable fulfillment with powerful, real-time technology. Shipfusion has multiple fulfillment centers across the US and Canada– making it easy to manage your eCommerce business. For more information on how to set your business on autopilot, contact one of our fulfillment specialists today.
