Royal Mail has announced the launch of a new portal to help
online retailers better manage returns while also improving the experience for
their customers.The returns portal gives
retailers full visibility of returned items – from exactly which items are
being returned, from which customer, and for
what reason. This will enable retailers to improve stock management because
they will know what return items to expect each day and can plan ahead with
future orders and despatch times.
The portal also enables online
retailers to help their shoppers to benefit from an improved experience. They
will have the ability to easily print off a returns label and monitor the
progress of their item back to the retailer through Royal Mail’s enhanced
Tracked Returns service, which now tracks at five points in Royal Mail’s
network instead of two.
The development
is part of Royal Mail’s on-going programme to continually improve our products
and services to support online retailers and their shoppers. Research has
revealed the importance of a good returns experience for driving repeat
purchases. Seven in ten (72 per cent) of shoppers have said they would be
unlikely to shop with a retailer if they had a difficult returns experience.
Meanwhile, the
Hall and Partners research also reveals that 83 per cent of people trust Royal
Mail to deliver their online purchases, more than any other national parcel
company. Alongside this, the Post Office, the largest retail network in the UK
with 11,500 branches, is the most preferred method for returning items.
Nick
Landon Royal Mail’s Managing Director for Fulfilment and Parcels said: “Royal Mail is pleased to
announce the launch of the new returns portal to help online retailers better
manage returns while also improving the experience for their customers.
Research shows the importance for online retailers to provide an easy returns
experience for their customers if they want them to buy from them again. Seven
in ten people who have had a difficult experience returning unwanted items are
unlikely to order from that retailer again.”
Royal Mail also made its Local Collect ‘click and collect’ service with
Post Offices available to its 20,000 SME contract customers in 2014. This
enables many of the UK’s leading small and medium size online businesses to
offer shoppers the option of collection from any of 10,500 Post Office
branches. Last autumn, Royal Mail announced an investment of
around £130 million over five years in hand-held technology to provide more
flexible delivery for customers and better tracking capability.
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