Return Frequency & Costs Prompt Retailers to Drop Brands

Some of the largest and most recognizable retailers are telling customers to keep defective items and issuing a refund rather than requiring the item be returned. Is this the latest strategy to build goodwill with customers? Not necessarily. The fact is that, in some cases, it’s just cheaper. As a trickle down effect of supply chain issues and misguided forecasting from pandemic-induced shopping behaviors, many retailers are finding themselves stuck with too much inventory and the costs associated with processing returns are just not worth the hassle.

“We’re constantly digging into the data to understand why customers are bringing stuff back. We actually can solve a bigger portion of the end of the life cycle of the product by stopping the return from ever occurring. So if I know I have an item that is low quality, we work with the manufacturer to fix it or we quit selling it,” says Linne Fulcher, Wal-Mart’s VP of Customer Strategy, Science & Journeys.

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Sources: https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/26/business/retail-returns/index.html ; https://www.zebra.com/us/en/solutions/industry/manufacturing/use-case/quality-management.html