RETURNS: the problem that keeps coming back

In retrospect: Return Rules was one of the first major features we shipped when I joined Tecsys OrderDynamics as head of product for the retail distributed order management (DOM) platform. Upon learning about the product, the first piece of product strategy I set in motion was to separate out the “set & forget” functionality of an admin console from the customer service features for call center/store clerks. This feature was a perfect way to set this strategy into motion…

Original post follows from June 28, 2019

(https://medium.com/@sarah.mcmullin_82646/returns-the-problem-that-keeps-coming-back-8e45dcbb7a37)

No one likes returns. As a shopper, it represents a vanquished dream: the perfect outfit that didn’t fit, the perfect appliance that didn’t save you time, or the gift that was a duplicate. Now it represents a hassle. Your time is a sunk cost. How do you get your money back? Better start staring at the fine print, right? What started as a fun retail experience quickly escalates into negativity with a return.

How about for the retailer? Returns is the dirty word no one wants to talk about in retail because a return is symbolic of a customer relationship gone astray. It’s complicated. And it’s expensive. In fact, returns represents a $351B problem for US retailers. It’s complicated because depending on how the product got to the customer, there can be many steps to facilitate the return, recoup the costs, and reverse engineer the logistics. If the product was purchased online, there may be delivery or additional labor costs to consider. There are also inventory considerations — should everything really go back to its origin? There are of course costs associated with these return policy choices. Some retailers choose to offload this complexity onto the customer. “You bought that online? Oh, then you can’t return that in-store.” OR “You want to exchange this in-store item for this online item? You can’t do that.” In a returns scenario, it is imperative for retailers to hide this supply chain complexity from the customer, rather than worsen the negative journey they have taken to return the product in the first place.

So how might we enable a store associate or a customer service representative to process a return anywhere regardless of whether the product was purchased online or in a particular store?

OR in other words…

how might we enable a store associate or a customer service representative to make the returns process as painless as possible for the customer, to turn a potentially negative brand experience into a positive one?

This is the exact problem statement we sat down to solve with our NEW Return Rules engine, which I am super excited to announce as part of the new 19.4 Tecsys OrderDynamics Order Management System (OMS) release.

What is a Return Rules Engine? It’s a feature within Tecsys OrderDynamics that lets Supply Chain Managers define and optimize their return rules across their stores and customer service outlets. For example:

• Define whether an item is non-refundable (like most cosmetics)
• Add an extra fee associated with the return (like an environmental levy)
• Set return duration limits with return rules (e.g. allow return within 30 days of purchase)
• Specify the return destination by using your available inventory positions in your other stores (hint: to maximize your supply chain it doesn’t always have to go back to the DC!).
• Even define how much of an order you want to allow to return (say 50% of the total purchase price), or whether the shipping is non-refundable.

Return Rules can be defined at both global (apply to the entire order) and item level. You can even specify the order of operations in which they are applied through prioritization. The Return Rules Engine is easy to use allowing for 100% configurability for emerging supply chains.

But what good is a rule without enforcement?

After return rules are defined, any return can be processed by applying these rules within the Tescys OrderDynamics Stores web application. Scan the order and have your associates pre-populate the return according to your predefined rules. Your customers can return the item however they want: call customer care, walk-into ANY store. The Stores application can process the return with all the necessary return policy enforcement and workflow optimization to efficiently process that return easily.

The technology is here today to make the returns experience better. It can be painless to return anything, anywhere. Granted in a shopping utopia returns would never exist, but I cannot envision a world in which 100% of needs are fulfilled 100% of the time every time. That world would not be human.