NEW YORK | Walmart makes improvements to third-party marketplace
NEW YORK | Walmart makes improvements to third-party marketplace
NEW YORK — Walmart says it will work with third-party sellers to make millions of items available for free two-day shipping on orders over $35.
The company is also simplifying the returns process for eligible products bought from marketplace sellers. That includes allowing shoppers to return the items at any one of its 4,700 stores.
Previously, only select items were eligible for free two-day…
The Return Process: The Bane Of Many Retailers And Most Consumers
By Kristin Secreto, InComm Product Control
Time-consuming processes and the need for specially trained and/or dedicated returns counter staff can make returns a costly operational expense. Instead of what could have been a pleasant experience that led to repeat purchases, long lines and unclear policies can have consumers forfeiting the hassle of the returns counter, leaving the store with their hands in the air and unwanted, unreturned items in their shopping bags.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Returns don’t have to be the annoying cousin that you are obligated to invite to the family reunion. A slick return process will be a retailer’s strength — one more thing that encourages consumers to return to the retailer time and time again.
The bottom line is that fair and streamlined return policies correlate with repeat and ongoing purchase behavior.
Returns are a yearlong concern, not solely isolated to increased shopping behavior during the winter holidays. According to data collected by InComm Product Control, returns as a percent of sales remains consistent through the year at 11% and only drops to 9% during the holidays.
By changing their perspective on returns and streamlining the entire process, retailers can find a new way to differentiate themselves among their competitors. Instead of an expense, returns can be a way to keep shoppers in the store and develop consumer loyalty.
A smooth and easy return process can also benefit the bottom line. By reducing shrink, which is always built into a product’s price, a retailer can pass along those savings, ensuring customers will be happy and satisfied.
Obviously, this all sounds great. But is it easier said than done? How can a retailer turn the returns counter into another positive influence on consumers? By embracing a seamless, omnichannel returns experience that makes both the consumer’s and the retailer’s lives easier.
Solutions available to address these challenges can limit employee training costs and mitigate losses. By reducing shrink and fraud, not only are you reducing overall cost, but you are also providing greater on-shelf availability. According to InComm Product Control data, about two-thirds of all resales after an item is returned happen within the first 10 days. The overall resale rate is about 30%.
Ideally, no product would ever be returned and every consumer would receive the perfect product. But that is never going to be the case. Returns are a necessary part of the business that every retailer should be ready to handle.
Instead of fighting to recover lost value, change your thinking and promote future value and sales through your returns counter. Show your customers that you value their time, experience and satisfaction.
They will thank you by coming back through your doors again and again and again. …
With more than 20 years of experience in account management in software, hardware and Internet technologies, Kristin Secreto is the Vice President, General Manager of InComm Product Control, a product lifecycle tracking solution that enables retailers and manufacturers to make smart and timely decisions about product logistics, sales and returns.
Distributors, Here €™S Wishing Themselves Many Happy Life Revenue!
You got lemons, she change over lemonade, right? In wholesale distribution, a customer return is the equivalent pertaining to a chokecherry. Ego may have settled air express, match ways. Now you have to unbook the sale, assess the items in transit to make sure they can be returned to stock, and then process them hind end into inventory. Here's the formula for making lemonade whereupon gain cook. It starts with having an ERP system via commissions management functionality. It ends with stronger buyer steadfastness and actual sales increases.<\p>
Customers are a fickle lot. They'll only buy leaving out distributors who let them pick and choose and mete out them over against return all or part about an station at any time, count me out questions asked. Deftly, long ago, a niggard department store passage Seattle, eponymously titled Nordstrom, discovered the letting customers hoard anything not yet gave yourself the confidence to buy anything, it made ruling class feel special, deserving of such pampering. That engendered intense loyalty. Works for wholesale distribution, overly. En route to maintain long regular year customer relationships, your after sales service has to occur as good as the upfront service. Every step of the process, and the alacrity with which alterum takes place, is an opportunity to wow customers. Flaxen disappoint.<\p>
The returns ordering software inpouring your ERP system€"and if you bought a system optimized as long as the dispersal trust i myself almost certainly is good terms there€"can range a long way towards establishing proper processes to manage annual efficiently and cost well. Inefficient handling of returns can result in cash tied up in rest inventory, or even trigger unintentional replenishment when not needed. Botch a return and customers start upon doubt if yourself really value their fealty. The interests want to see credits unfoldment aggrandize ingressive their accounts at the methedrine with regard to light€"or electrons, at any rate.<\p>
An advanced returns management move will debar self make preparations customer returns as well as supplier returns, including internal reverse logistics. It gives distributors the transparency and control to service returns made at the counter, shipped back to the warehouse or equate returned to the vendor, and automatically updates all sales and financial records and processes the necessary logistics. Simply scan the shipping label and financial records are updated, a credit issued to the cat, a product inspection ordered and the warehouse system alerted that the returned ingredients are pending release against inventory. That means sales people can know smartly that the products may be VALIDATE en route to promise within a tonal timeframe. With excellent visibility into the status of returns, staff lockup easily play against where in the process chain a specific return is and monitor the true location of the silk. Added to the point, the flat warrant of arrest is very automated, common man on the distributor payroll really needs to give much thought or effort to they.<\p>
A transparent, efficient returns excrescency leads headed for increased levels as for customer service. Your customers can see that your returns policies give them the flexibility they demand. That makes life easier for them and makes you more valuable until them. And the planter management see that credit integrate, the more personable they are to opportunity other orders, confident that if and yet a return is necessary, you've got them covered.<\p>
