The difficulty and expense of returning items is the second-biggest obstacle to shopping online, and 81% of online consumers say they are more likely to buy from e-retailers with flexible return policies, according to a study conducted for UPS by Forrester Consulting, a unit of Forrester Research Inc.
“An inflexible or stringent returns policy can be an obstacle to growth, particularly as those consumers most likely to return items also tend to be the most active online buyers,” Forrester says in the study, “Crafting a Returns Policy that Creates a Competitive Advantage Online.”
The study adds that 81% of online consumers also say they are more loyal to online retailers that have “generous” return policies, and that 73% say they are less likely to buy from an online retailer with a restrictive return policy. Forrester defines flexible and generous return policies as those with features such as free return shipping and the ability to return a product at any time for any reason. The study is based on a survey earlier this year of 755 online consumers.
When asked to name the biggest obstacles to online shopping, 79.8% of survey respondents cited cost of shipping, followed by 55.2% who cited re-stocking fees and difficulty in processing returns, and 55.1% who cited the inability to examine products in person before purchase.
The study also found that consumers who pay for returns spend on average more than $7 per return. In 65% of cases, online shoppers return items because of errors on the part of retailers: 23% because the wrong item was shipped, 22% because the received item was different from the way it appeared online, 20% because the item was received in damaged condition.
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