Returns are a process, not an apology
The average return is handled by a person reading an email. It does not have to be.
Returns get treated as an exception even in shops where a fifth of orders come back. That framing is expensive. An exception is handled by a person; a process is handled by the system, and only the genuinely unusual cases reach a person.
Three things to decide once
- Who pays, and whether that changes by reason, value or destination.
- What is automatically approved, and what needs a human to look.
- Where the parcel goes back to, which is not always where it came from.
Write those down and most of the queue disappears. A return that is inside the window, under the value threshold and for a stated reason can be approved, labelled and tracked without anyone opening anything.
Put the portal in your own branding
A return is a moment of doubt. Sending the customer to a carrier's generic form at that moment is a strange thing to do deliberately. A return page in your own styling, with your own policy in your own words, is a cheap piece of reassurance.
Read the reasons
The return reason field is the most under-read data in e-commerce. Reasons cluster: a size that runs small, a photograph that flatters, a service that damages. Each cluster is a fixable cause, and fixing the cause is the only return strategy that reduces the number of returns rather than the cost of processing them.