Developing an effective returns policy

Published on September 23, 2010 Developing an effective returns policy

In some industries like apparel, returns are one of the biggest challenges that a store owner will face.  There are the legal requirements that you need to meet – at both the federal and state level – but there is also the question about what other elements you want to add to your policy.

One of the biggest problems for business owners who hold stock is what to do about people who deliberately damage a product in order to claim it as faulty. If you have a no returns policy, then this problem is often seen even more because if someone is adamant that they want to return something for a refund, this is the only way they can get one.

If you go to the other extreme and have returns or refunds no questions asked, you will stop the problem of people damaging products just to return it but you are opening yourself up to be an online changing room: with people getting your garments, wearing them out and returning them. If the garment is still in good condition it can be hard to tell that it was worn rather than just tried on.

Damaging a product to get a return is fraud but as a store owner it can sometimes be hard to prove. And you don’t want to go accusing your customers of fraudulent activity if the garment was genuinely faulty. So what can you do?

Here are 3 great tips you can employ as part of your returns policy that can help reduce the number of online changing room customers buying from you as well as reducing the number of garments returned as faulty that weren’t. It will slow down your returns process and could make it more costly for you, but could save you money in unsaleable garments.

1. Take photos of items before you send them. Catalog and photograph every item of stock before it’s sent. A very painful and slow process for your packaing team or yourself if you are a home business, but makes it very hard for people to argue with you after the fact. Definitely recommended for products like lingerie which have no returns for change-of-mind for health reasons.

2. Quality inspect every item before it goes out. For garments, check the seams, stitching, fabric quality and anything that could lead to the garment being returned as faulty. That only leaves change of mind for exchanges, and then it’s up to you what you accept.

3. Publish your policies on your website. Not just on the store terms and conditions page, include it on your shipping page or returns page.