It’s no surprise that returns are the bane of any retailer’s existence. In fact, the problem has escalated so much that returns have become a “trillion-dollar problem” for retailers, impacting the entire value chain from supply chain and inventory to operational to customer experience.
But all hope is not yet lost.
While the returns epidemic has disrupted many retailers’ daily operations, not to mention bottom lines, returns reduction company Newmine is on a mission. The company’s aptly named Chief Returns Officer® is a digital retail intelligence platform focused on solving merchandise returns for both big and small brands. The data-driven Chief Returns Officer® helps retailers understand why their returns happened, and what they can do to prevent them from happening again.
“The Chief Returns Officer provides retailers with a wealth of data on what’s being returned,” said Michael Relich, co-CEO of American retail clothing brand Pacsun in a fireside chat with Sourcing Journal’s features editor Kate Nishimura. “Most retailers don’t look at the returns until maybe four months later, and by then it’s too late. Newmine allows you to slice and dice your return data based on all these different attributes.”
Benefits of returns technology
While online shopping makes at least some returns inevitable, Newmine aims to put them to use. By implementing Newmine’s innovative technology, retailers can get a deeper understanding of what merchandise is being returned and why.
In fact, the Chief Returns Officer® is the only software as a service (SaaS) based returns intelligence platform that uses predictive and prescriptive analytics along with corrective action workflows to lower future returns and improve retailers’ financial performance and customer satisfaction.
“The Chief Returns Officer can take prescriptive analytics and combine it with predictive analytics to identify what the problem is, and then create a course of action to help retailers lower returns,” said Relich.
There’s also a sustainability benefit. By lowering returns, retailers can reduce their carbon emissions, material usage, packaging waste and water pollution.
“In the future, I think returns will actually be under control,” said Relich. “I know that’s really hard to predict, but I believe platforms like Newmine—and its Chief Returns Officer—will give retailers the tools that they need to reduce returns.”
To watch the fireside chat, click the image above. For more information, go to https://www.newmine.com/returns-reduction.
