The growth of online channels is resulting in more lenient return practices. Consumers view shopping more as a risk-free discovery of size and style rather than a final purchase. This results in high costs and risks for retailers.
The growth of online channels is resulting in more lenient return practices. Consumers view shopping more as a risk-free discovery of size and style rather than a final purchase. This results in high costs and risks for retailers.
A very complex situation exists in the e-commerce industry, especially in companies that sell apparel. According to Shopify Fashion Industry Report, the percentage of returns in this industry’s online channels is between 30-50%.
McKinsey Returns Management Survey shows, that the issue of returns is heavily neglected by retailers and is not in the top five priorities for nearly 33% of them. Many see returns as a necessity and focus on improving return policies rather than analyzing the causes of returns.
As the main reason for returns customers indicate problems with proper description of products, especially in terms of size, fit or color. These factors are indicated by almost half of the people who decide to return the purchased products.
Clothing and accessories are items chosen on subjective grounds, such as preference and emotion and the selection of clothing (especially in e-commerce) is huge.
Customers want to try it on before deciding if it suits them. In a physical store, this is easy to do, customers can see, touch and try on the product before buying.
What is important, almost 62% of the returns of purchases made over the Internet are related to the desire to exchange the product for another one, and not to return it completely. The conclusions are obvious - the problem is the product content.
However, it is primarily about the information that specifies the parameters and physical characteristics of products, rather than general marketing descriptions or photos.
The key to lowering the return rate is therefore proper parameterization of product content.
In theory, it seems very simple - just describe the products accurately. In practice, you need to think about both the Customer Experience perspective and the whole process of working on product content parameterization (Product Information Management perspective).
Fashion retailers can take few steps to improve their customers’ experiences and reduce returns:
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We believe that with PIM system, we can help you improve your ecommerce business and reduce the number of returns in the fashion industry. Need details and more arguments for your decision? No problem! Download our ebook "Improving returns management in apparel industry" and put our PIM solution into action.
