Return-to-Origin Can Increase This Festive Season As 7 In Every 10 People Gear Up To Shop Online

• Shoppers want the order to be delivered by a certain date, but there is no mention of the estimated date of delivery while placing the order
• They got a better deal somewhere else and chose to go with it
• They made an impulsive decision and decided not to buy it later
• The shopper shifted to another place but didn’t update the address while placing the order
• They placed multiple orders from many websites, with an intention to buy from one that offered the best deals and early delivery. As a result, they cancelled other orders.
• Due to no order delivery date communication, the customer was not at home when the delivery was attempted.
• The customer forgot about the ordered product since there was no communication between order placement and delivery and cancelled it when the delivery was attempted.
• Other urgent expenses emerged due to the festive season and customers’ affordability for the ordered product got affected, leading to cancellation.

Filter out the traffic

• A lot of times, traffic coming from Facebook, Instagram or some other social media channels leads to impulse orders.
• By understanding where the traffic is coming from, your brand can filter the buyers into genuine and non-genuine categories.
• Think of it as a tea strainer. When you are making tea, you only want to keep the strained tea free of tea leaves, and other ingredients as the final product.
• Similarly, strain out the possible low intent customers depending on where they are coming from, and place interventions to minimise RTO losses

Use high-quality images

• The customer’s trust factor is low on products with lower quality images.
• Adding high-quality images to product descriptions can calm customer anxiety about the genuineness of the product.
• This will lead to an increase in trust, and consequently, a reduction in RTO

Increase communication

• Provide assistance to customers while they place the order (language, address, others)
• Ensure extensive communication of the order status throughout the course of shipment
• Provide estimated delivery date to customers while they finalise the order

Analyse past behaviour and place interventions

• Analyse customer behavioural patterns in the past, and flag customers who have a pattern of returning an order before it reaches them
• Blacklist regularly fraudulent customers from choosing cash on delivery (CoD) payment mode
• When a customer with a higher propensity to return an order chooses CoD as a preferred mode of payment, put interventions in place:
• Disable the CoD option for very high-risk customer
• Add extra shipping costs for CoD and/or,
• Add more confirmation steps for CoD – Such as entering OTP or confirming over a call etc.
• Ensure bulk orders are sent in small groups of products.
• Incentivise prepaid modes of payment by offering higher discounts to customers since returns are highest on CoD orders

Review the address of the customer

• If the address is detected to be inappropriate, incomplete or inaccurate, use AI to correct those
• If the detention happens after order placement, then communicate the same with the customer.

The key focus areas for brands this festive season should be:

• Creating a differentiated positioning, and standing out with unique offers, advertising and festive campaigns
• Focusing on providing a superior customer experience throughout the shopping and delivery stage
• Ensuring the overall GMV multiplies further by putting interventions to reduce RTO