Shipping Returns Policy & Capabilities

Customers are going to make returns

With more than 30% of all products purchased online being returned*, returns are part of selling online. Unlike the physical returns process, where the shopper returns to the store and initiates the return or exchange, shipping is central to the online returns process. As with the popularity of free shipping on the front end, the majority of shoppers like free returns—or at least easy returns.

Return capabilities you’ll want to consider:

Degree of customer self-service: Your selling platform probably allows customers to initiate the return process; you need to decide the level of involvement in the process you need to have in the context of what your selling platform allows. You may, for example, want to manually approve every return and manually issue a Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) before the customer can send the product back; or, you may allow automatic approval/RMA issuance.

Pay on use labels/scan based returns vs. post shipping: Your shipping platform will most likely offer you a variety of options for return labels. All major carriers offer the option to print return labels for inclusion in your outbound shipment. These are not charged to your account (UPS, FedEx) or account balance (USPS) until or unless your customer uses the label and it is scanned by the carrier. Hence the name “Pay on Use.” Alternatively, you can generate a shipping label on request from your customer post-shipping and email it to them.

Image Source: eCommerce Product Return Statistics and Trends

How returns can affect your business environments

Returns on your customer facing store environment

Enable the customer to initiate the return process
Issue an RMA
Deliver a return label for print (not common)
Track and report on returns and exchanges

Returns on your shipping environment

Generate a return label and RMA on demand
Provide a “pay on use” return label for selected orders to include in the outbound shipment (enables the customer to use a pre-printed label with the return address)
You have the option to decide whether you or your customer will pay for a return label

Returns on your physical environment