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Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas are events where people shop diligently – also online. One thing is already clear: some of the bargains we get will be sent back.
Author: Victoria Habermacher
Some goods are returned as quickly as they are purchased. According to one HSLU study Around every 14th item in Switzerland is returned. Garments in particular often end up back at retailers in this country. This takes up resources. As calculations by the sustainability consulting firm Esu-Services for SRF show, just one returned T-shirt generates CO₂ emissions of up to 220 grams. This is roughly equivalent to a one-kilometer car journey.
For online retailers, returns are an additional expense. “We get two percent or less in returns. But they are disproportionately time-consuming because we obviously have to look at, check and process each one individually,” says Lauritz Fricke, Head of Returns at Galaxus.
Basically, everyone seems to agree: the fewer products customers send back, the better.
The potential of artificial intelligence
But why are products returned at all? Often the product does not meet expectations. Or, especially when it comes to dresses, several sizes are ordered right from the start so that you are sure to get the right one. Providers like Zalando actually fueled this by making returns free of charge for customers.
To counteract this development, hopes lie in artificial intelligence. It helps to analyze large amounts of data, understand customers better and thereby improve advice, says Lauritz Fricke.
As you get better information, you as a customer can make better decisions. You will be satisfied and returns will decrease.
The many feedback from customers regarding false expectations and the fit size of shoes and clothes could be evaluated and integrated into the product descriptions.
Harald Gutschi, spokesman for the Unito Group, to which the online retailer Ackermann.ch belongs, also sees great potential in artificial intelligence. «As you get better and better information, you as a customer can make better decisions. You will be satisfied and returns will decrease.”
Behavioral economic approaches
Philipp Spreer is managing director of Elaboratum. In one Study He examined which approaches can avoid returns in online retail without relying on bans. If the information appears during the ordering process that a return costs around 30 minutes, this reduces returns by 20 percent, says Philipp Spreer.
An example of the study
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If a product appears twice in the shopping cart, it is likely that at least one of them will be returned. That’s why a note is displayed in this example: Returning a package takes about half an hour (including the trip to the post office). At the same time, it only takes around three minutes to find the right size (with item description and size advice).
Can mandatory return fees help?
At the same time, it is a real game changer if sending something back costs something, says the e-commerce expert: “A return fee of 2.95 francs could avoid around one in five returns.”
But not all retailers charge a fee. For Harald Gutschi, returns are part of the business model: “We would never ban returns. And we don’t want to charge a fee because otherwise these customers won’t order.”
Legend: The study on the return rate examined whether pointing out that the time required to return an order is around ten times longer than to select the correct product reduces the number of returns. SRF
But now the pressure on retailers to rethink this is increasing, including from the political side. The Environment Commission of the Council of States is currently dealing with one Postulatewhich calls on the Federal Council to examine measures to curb returns.