Getting a handle on your Returns Rate

With January wrapping up, most of your holiday returns will have been sent in by now. That makes this a good time to dig into how your returns and exchanges went for the year.

Figuring out how many orders resulted in a return can be straight-forward. For this you'll want to use your Returns Rate.

Divide the number of returns by the total number of orders. It'll be a decimal number from 0 to 1.

1,000 returns
-----
10,000 orders

= 0.1 which is 10%

Did 1% of your orders return an order? 5%? 10%?

10% might sound high but you need more information: how has that changed from the year before?

Going from 1% to 10% in a year is a clear sign of a problem. Going from 20% to 10% is a clear improvement. Same measurement (10%) but it's the degree of change that matters.

Handle the returns right and you can still keep the customer.

Eric Davis

Segment your customers to find the diamonds in the rough

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Topics: Returns rate

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