Return and exchange policies are changing and the time has come to stop seeing this part of the post-sale process (and purchase on many occasions) as simply a problem. Your returns and exchanges can become a real opportunity for your ecommerce and boost the frequency of all your customers, not just the most loyal.
This is precisely what we talk about in our Post-sales Report 2023. A report that we created to explain how brands are transforming their returns and exchanges processes in order to offer a better experience to their customers.
In order to explain all this we have counted on many of the brands that are already adapting their processes, such as Castañer, Laagam, Nerety, Born Living Yoga, Singularu, Bimani, Wonders, Gioseppo, Pablosky, Zapato Feroz, Ecoalf, Vogana, Renatta&go, Mint&Rose, Invitadisima, Pompeii Brand, Pianno39, Agobio, Akala Studio, PuroEgo, Galcon, among others.
We also included many of the most relevant professionals in the ecommerce sector in Spain today, such as José Carlos Cortizo (CMO & Co-founder at Product Hackers), Rubén Bastón (Director of Marketing4eCommerce), Andrés Barreto (Ecosystem Manager at Product Hackers), Llorenç Palomas (CMO & Growth at Doofinder), Fares Kameli (expert in digital transformation) and Pablo Renaud (Co-founder of Ebolution).
Llorenç Palomas, CMO at Doofinder, opens our report with a statement that highlights the current situation: "The market has put in place those ecommerce stores that were focused exclusively on acquiring new users. Rising acquisition costs in advertising channels as well as strong competition in organic results have resulted in fewer and fewer ecommerce being able to maintain the level of investment they had. Therefore, it is essential that they start focusing on actions that bring profitability to the business. All of this involves working properly on the customer base with loyalty actions to increase recurrence".
With acquisition costs skyrocketing [Link post "How to cope...] loyalty has become a priority for ecommerce. But the truth is that few of them put enough effort into offering a memorable experience to their customers. The vast majority offer points systems, free shipping costs... But why not take advantage of returns as a loyalty lever? Precisely at one of the points of greatest friction in the purchasing process, facilitating a unique experience is fundamental, as Corti highlights in our report.
We would like to highlight the importance of loyalty thanks to Flat101's latest Annual E-Commerce and Digital Business Conversion Study, which shows that recurring users convert 211% more than new users.
And it is precisely here, in this strategy and focus on retention, where the post-sales experience comes into play. To this end, we asked many of the most relevant brands in the country and found that for 37% of those surveyed, one of the main problems with ecommerce is poor communication, so much so that they would not buy again. There is a lack of information about the status of the order, something that is even more accentuated when it comes to returns processes and refunds, collection by logistics, etc.
However, what is most relevant is that 20% of those who participated in the report stated that the second reason for a bad experience was the delay in the refund. Let's think, if in order to make a purchase you have to advance your money before receiving any product, why is it that in the case of a return your money is the last thing you receive?
Rubén Bastón, Director of Marketing4Ecommerce gives us 4 key points about what eCommerce has to take into account to offer an exceptional post-sales experience:
- Delivery coordination.
- Well-worked packaging.
- Clear instructions for use.
- Frictionless returns.
But... What is a frictionless returns process? We invite you to download our report and discover how this "problem" for many stores can become an opportunity for your business. Click here and access the report for free.