Returns Management

WMS Returns Management

Returns management has become an increasingly important part of the fulfilment process. The proportion of sales made online is growing year on year and return rates continue to rise as a consequence. Customer returns policies are now an important part of the customer proposition. There has been an increase in the proportion of online retailers who charge for returns but whether they are being charged for or not customers expect a hassle-free returns process and quick refunds. Organisations that cannot meet these customer expectations will almost certainly lose business to their competitors who can.

If the returns management process is not run efficiently it becomes a very disruptive, time-consuming and costly process. It is therefore important that your returns process is fit for purpose.

OrderFlow are able to provide flexible and future-proof solutions by working in close partnership with our customers to gain a detailed understanding of their current and future requirements. This means that  the system will be able to deal with any of your organisation’s unique processes and business rules. As your business grows and changes the OrderFlow returns process can be modified to meet your new requirements. Our in-depth understanding of warehousing and order processing enables us to build systems which capture all the available information about each return and add structure to the process, which is the key to effective returns management. 

What is Returns Management and why is it so important to your organisation’s profits?

Returns management is the process of effectively managing customers’ returns. It is important to any organisation selling products to B2B and B2C markets for the following reasons:

• It has a direct impact on customer satisfaction, return sales and ultimately your profitability.
• Effective returns management processes linked to a WMS will help streamline and automate your warehouse processes which in turn reduce your operational costs. It will also provide you with real-time visibility of the process which will enable you to manage the process more effectively.
• It will help you understand why customers are returning products and enable you to make changes to your quality control, product features and sales processes.
• In busy periods an efficient system will enable you to get products quickly back into stock to fulfil the demand for popular products.

What are the important features of an effective return management process

1. A Returns Policy
   A retailer’s legal obligations about returns are defined in the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. Your returns policy should be clear in all your sales channels and is also often included in the paperwork despatched with customer orders.
   As well as outlining the legal terms and conditions that relate to returns your policy should also give the customer all the practical information your customer needs to return items to you.
2. An (optional) RMA process
   You may require your customers to contact your customer service department before they can return items to you. This might be done to discourage abuse of your returns policy, to schedule collection by your own choice of carrier or simply to provide the customer with a suitable postage paid returns label. The customer service process for recording a planned return should generate a Returned Merchandise Authorisation (an RMA) against which the item or items can be processed when they arrive in the warehouse.
   The process of creating an RMA for a return can be done within the OrderFlow WMS or can be done within your customer service platform.
   Regardless of whether or not you ask customers to contact you before returning items, some returns will always arrive at the warehouse unannounced. This might because the order could not be delivered or because the customer just choose not to contact your customer service department before posting items back to you.
3. Receiving and inspecting returns
   Creating a record of a customer return needs to be structured to ensure that any information provided by the customer is captured. This might be a completed returns form or a hand written note. In addition to the information provided by the customer the returns process should also capture any relevant information that can be provided by the user recording the details.
   This might be very specific to the type of item being returned but might include:
    > whether the item has been used or worn
    > whether it’s been opened
    > whether it’s been damaged or soiled in any way
   It’s often useful to be able to capture a photo of the item for the customer service department to refer to when deciding about whether to refund or replace the item.
4. Return Outcomes
   The returns process should be configured to support the range of different outcomes that might apply to the items being returned. These will be specific to your business, typical outcomes include:
   > return to stock (suitable for resale)
   > return to stock as a discounted SKU (for sale at a discount)
   > hold for inspection
   > return to supplier
   > destroy
   > donate to charity
   Utilising hand scanners will enable you to capture information such as RMA numbers, SKU’s and serial numbers which will provide links to the original orders.
   If the RMA was originally created through an API interface to an external customer service platform the return details can be pushed to the customer service system in the same way. The customer service platform can then be used to trigger a customer refund or to create a new customer order for replacement items.

OrderFlow’s Automated Returns Management Service

The OrderFlow returns module ensures that all the relevant information about a return is captured in a structured way when a return is received. OrderFlow will provide you with the tools to analyse and understand your returns patterns. Dashboards and reports containing returns KPI’s will enable you to identify key information such as return rates on products, miss-picking and packaging mistakes. This information can be used to drive improvements and efficiencies in your business which will increase customer satisfaction and reduce the operational cost of correcting mistakes.