What Will Help Retailing Stem Returns In The Future?

Several studies have pointed to predictive analysis as potentially addressing return issues that retailers are encountering. When a retailer experiences a high rate of return due to sizing issues, the retailer is likely to quickly become aware that there is a problem at hand. It happens with new vendors, who are not familiar with the retailer. or retailers who are not familiar with the supplier.

Preventative measures should have been taken at the first meeting with the vendor. Now a review of the technical specifications is in order to ensure that further shipments have the size reequipments fully spelled out. Suppliers do not question specifications. They just produce to the specifications that were given. I recall, many years ago, the sample of a sleeping garment had a hole in the breast pocket. It was faithfully reproduced in the garment the manufacturer delivered from overseas.

Analyzing returns helps identify liabilities. The customer is well taken care of at Nordstrom’s
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where returns are cheerfully taken back by the salesperson. While some of the garments can be resold, since the customer took good care of the garment, others are almost unsaleable. I am told that the industry loses billions of dollars in taking back unwanted merchandise. Companies like Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue or even Walmart
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and Target
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want their costumers to return, so it is unlikely that they will bar any returns if the return is made in a timely manner.

Most stores consider a month plenty of time for a garment to make a round trip from store to home and back to the store. Some costumers do not trust the sizing, even if the garment come from a reputable brand. That is when the customer orders the same garment in three different sizes only to return two of the garments after trying them on at home. Dressing rooms are often cramped, the customer does not have time to try on the garment etc.

There are solutions The apparel and retail industries should establish sizing standards that are mandatory. (There will always be sharpshooters who will cut corners and produce garments that do not comply with the standards.) Garments should be returned in a shorted time for a full refund. Stores should optimize inventory management to ensure that customers feel they are well taken care-of.

POSTSCRIPT: It is shocking to read that billions of dollars are the cost of markdowns in retailing. This is particularly true of fashion at fashion stores. It must change, since the cost is too high for stores to bear every year. Merchandise managers must teach their buyers the art of buying correctly. Their stores will benefit.