How returns policies can be harnessed to help boost conversions
It’s not just the merchandise or the price that converts site visitors into buyers – it’s the whole customer experience. That has more online retailers embracing returns as a strategic opportunity instead of consigning them to the status of a backroom function.
With an eye on increasing conversions as well a providing an enhanced customer experience, Shoes.com, the online arm of Brown Shoe Co. Inc., bumped its original 30-day window for returns up to an unusually generous 60 days, though the majority of customers who actually make returns continue to do so within two weeks. Shoes.com also gives free return shipping, fast becoming an industry standard in online sales of footwear. It now features it returns policy more prominently on its site.
“We realized it was a great selling point for people to know that, before they have even started shopping,” says vice president of marketing Mondy Beller. “Shoes are a little bit riskier to buy online because you want to try them on. We needed to minimize that risk and give customers peace of mind. We want to really give that customer the confidence to buy that shoe.”
Though Shoes.com hasn’t tied specific metrics such as customer retention or repurchase to returns policy features such as the extended returns window, Beller says their effect on customers—and sales—has been positive.
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