The Four Personas of a Serial Returner

What goes through your mind as you return a purchase? A quick search on Reddit will reveal hundreds of consumer discussions ranging from their anxieties of being prevented from purchasing from their favorite retailers to their lack of guilt over taking full advantage of the liberal return policies most retailers have adopted in recent years. Most recently, there’s been a conversational spike around: “How many returns is too many?” Or, “Am I going to be banned for ‘abusing the return policy’?” The rising fear among customers over being banned is to be expected. Retailers have begun to recognize that free and easy returns are causing significant damage to their bottom line. For example, Asos famously changed their return policy this year with a special caveat: “If we notice an unusual pattern of returns activity that doesn’t sit right…then we might have to deactivate the account and any associated accounts.” And Asos is not alone. Amazon, Best Buy and Net-a-porter have all instituted similar policies. There are many significant costs that rise with product returns. For example, Statista estimates that return deliveries alone will cost $550 billion by 2020, and that doesn’t include the labor and disposition costs. It’s no surprise that retailers are

Follow WWD on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

Read More...

from WWDWWD https://ift.tt/332R8P3