Meeting Your Double Bottom Line with Innovative Returns Management

Product returns are an inevitable part of any business’s operations. However, while brick-and-mortar stores see about 10% of their sales returned, e-commerce businesses face three times that much—up to 30%. So if you operate an e-commerce business, it would behoove you to revisit your company’s returns management strategies.

With such a large percentage of sales coming back, it is crucial that you manage every aspect of the returns and reversal process efficiently. Bad management will hurt the environment. What’s more, it will also hurt the profit margins of retailers and manufacturers alike.

Innovative Returns Management Strategies

Innovative returns management strategies are essential to meeting your business’s environmental and profit bottom lines. Further, they lie at the heart of your supply-chain system.

The trick is to have the greatest chance of giving returned products a second life. To do that, you must track every piece of data and information for every possible “disposition outcome” at the time of the return. This is good for the environment. It’s also good for your company’s profitability.

In particular, you’ll want to keep track of the following:

Latest selling price
Condition of the item
Rolling 30- or 60-day price
Cost of every touch, move, or repair for each item

That’s a lot of information to keep track of. What’s more, a business with a small footprint probably can’t handle the multiple distribution channels and other logistics necessary and still achieve their bottom line.

Using a Third Party to Manage the Returns Process

Fortunately, innovative returns management companies, such as goTRG, have developed technology to manage retailers’ returns. These companies license their technology and facilities to retailers. In this way, retailers can manage and have final say on their returns processes.

For instance, you might utilize a third-party omni-channel supply chain company that provides an all-inclusive dashboard through which you can track all aspects of any return, including:

Reason for the return
Manufacturer
Vendor
UPC
Location

Using the Best Technologies at the Best Cost

Consider this: what if it takes $30 worth of repair to extend the life of an item that will sell for only $25? That makes no business sense. It fails to meet one crucial side of the bottom line.

In order to fully navigate an easy returns management process, you’ll need automation. Housing that technology yourself can be costly on your end. As a matter of fact, it could perhaps be too costly to meet your bottom line.

However, returns management companies allow you to use their facilities and automated technology to refurbish and repair the inventory. In this way, you can reclaim as much value as possible.

Further, automation removes handling and transportation costs. This allows workers to perform the value-additive repair processes. By being able to repair and refurbish inventory, you will better meet your environmental bottom line. And best of all, you will regain some of your profit margin as well.