Returns don’t need to cost so much, Gartner says

Retailers can reduce the cost of processing a returned purchase by nearly 75% by automating the process, a new study by Gartner Group Inc.’s Gartner G2 Retail Services Group reports.

Fully manual processing of returns cost $32.69 while automating every step costs $8.69, Gartner says. Returns cost retailers from 0.2% all the way to 25% of their sales, Gartner says.

Among the automation steps the research company recommends are to offer an online returns template, where customers can serve themselves, rather than having customers call a contact center. It also recommends providing a scannable barcode label that a customer prints from the web rather than including a pre-printed return label with purchases. And it says retailers can use an automated system such as e-mail to notify customers that the retailer has received the return and shipped a replacement, if appropriate.