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Retail’s returns challenge: How to balance customer demands and overheads

Inside Retail

Growing consumer expectations of free delivery and free returns are placing pressure on retailers who on one hand recognise customer demand, but on the other are trying to reduce their operating costs. Another strategy, she says, is to automate fulfilment. This is especially true with women’s apparel, for example. “We’ve

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Q4 Roundup: Amazon and Target’s Success Spotlights Fulfillment Prowess, Stores or no Stores

Retail TouchPoints

Fulfillment was a key driver during the ecommerce-driven final quarter of 2020. Amazon in particular invested more than $60 billion in shipping alone in 2020, helping it maintain blazing fast delivery times, but O’Shea believes its lack of a significant physical store footprint will cause it to lag behind the competition to some degree.

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Returns: The Hidden Opportunity for Retail

Retail TouchPoints

Returns provide brands and retailers the opportunity to delight their customers. market saw over $400B in returns in 2020. If this dollar value were a proxy for revenues, the returns channel would be the second largest global retailer behind Walmart. That is a significant amount of capital tied up in the returns channel!

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Walmart Offers Free At-Home Pickups for Online Product Returns

Retail TouchPoints

Seeking to minimize customers’ return complexities, Walmart has partnered with FedEx for at-home pickup of unwanted gifts or ill-fitting apparel. Customers can schedule returns via the new Carrier Pickup by FedEx service for products that have been shipped and sold by Walmart.com, using either the website or the Walmart app.

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Retail’s returns challenge: How to balance customer demands and overheads

Inside Retail

Growing consumer expectations of free delivery and free returns are placing pressure on retailers who on one hand recognise customer demand, but on the other are trying to reduce their operating costs. Another strategy, she says, is to automate fulfilment. This is especially true with women’s apparel, for example. “We’ve

Returns 130
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How Retailers Can Control Costs Even As Return Rates Climb

Retail TouchPoints

Returns are a cost of doing business for any retailer. In the wake of COVID-19, returns are receiving serious (and necessary) attention for several key reasons: Retailers are spending more processing returns in stores. For retailers struggling to avoid bankruptcy or emerge from it, a growing returns quagmire could be deadly.

Returns 333
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RetailWire: Should Walmart Reinstate In-Store Returns During A Pandemic?

Retail TouchPoints

Although public health officials say it’s unlikely COVID-19 infections can be spread by surfaces or physical objects, retailers are being cautious about how they handle returned merchandise. They are instituting disinfection processes and quarantine periods that keep those items from returning to stock for a varying number of days.

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