I did not know that returned merchandise can run 30% of sales fore online retailers.
From Crain's New York Business, October 24:
As Sarah LaFleur, founder and CEO of women’s workwear apparel company M.M. LaFleur, watched her customers get dressed for work once again last year, she and her team turned their attention to formulating a new brick-and-mortar strategy.
Running in-real-life spaces was not new for the company, which had eight showrooms around the country before closing them all in 2020. (Two have since reopened.) In New York City, its in-person retail strategy revolved around a Bryant Park showroom where brand fans could try on and order clothing, not necessarily walk out with a new wardrobe.
With its first ground-level retail store at 1225 Madison Ave., though, the plan is different. Passersby can discover the brand. Existing customers can stop in for a last-minute outfit. And the company can minimize its return volume.
“Even though it sounds crazy, I do believe brick and mortar to be efficient,” LaFleur said. “It pays for itself.”
After peaking early in 2020 at about 16%, the share of goods that Americans bought online leveled out at around 14% in the second quarter of this year, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau report.
Although that figure is still above the 11% of all retail volume e-commerce accounted for in 2019, pandemic-era online ordering turned out to be more of a pull-forward effect of the existing adoption timeline than a sea change in habits, said Amish Tolia. Based in New York City, Tolia is co-founder and co-CEO of Leap, a platform headquartered in Chicago that enables e-commerce firms to operate stores.........Other perks of the space, LaFleur said, include less of a burden from returned orders. E-commerce returns are above 30%, but stores rates are between 10% and 15%, she said.....
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And from Marketplace, November 4:
Is the era of free returns for online purchases coming to an end?
The holiday shopping season is upon us. According to the National Retail Federation, holiday retail sales are likely to be 6% to 8% higher than last year. And online sales look like they’ll be up 10 to 12%.
The thing about online shopping, though, is that a lot of what’s bought gets returned, and that costs companies a lot of money. A growing number of them are changing their return policies.
When people buy clothes or shoes online, many tend to order a few different sizes to try on. Then they keep one and return the rest.
For years, it’s been easy — and free — to do that at many online retailers.
“Everybody wanted to have, like, a superliberal return policy just to be competitive with e-commerce companies like Amazon and others,” said Sucharita Kodali, an analyst at Forrester. Now, she added, about 30% of clothes and shoes bought online are returned. “There’s a huge carbon footprint that’s associated with it, and that’s a huge cost” that companies tend to eat.....
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