Juliette Aiken, CMO at Dotdigital:
“ASOS’s new returns policy mayhem highlights how important it is for brands to be aware of customer experience and listen to customer feedback to maintain relationships.
Retailers have a responsibility to provide accurate information when it comes to their products, helping customers make more informed decisions about what they’re buying, reducing the likelihood of returns. The crux of this issue lies in customer complaints of ASOS items lacking in quality and poor sizing, leading to more frequent returns.
Collecting feedback on the reason for these returns will allow ASOS to identify the issue with the intention of improving customer experience for users. Some brands even offer to cover return costs, passing the expense to consumers only when they change their mind about their purchase.
The cost of a return stretches far beyond the financial implications for businesses- it also includes environmental impact. While returns should be discouraged on customers’ parts, more can be gleaned from ASOS’ customer base’s response to the new returns fee. The subscription economy for ASOS is key for retaining its customer base, so understanding returns feedback and taking actions to improve customer experience because of this is essential.
ASOS are one of many brands that have done a good job of building a brand community that people want to be a part of, so to damage this now over something that is not in the customers control would be poor.”
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