How to automate exchanges in e-commerce for a seamless customer experience?

Studies have shown that bad returns management leads to profits being reduced by 25%

Returns wreak havoc on the profits of e-commerce sellers for a couple of reasons namely inventory blockage, damaged products, reverse logistics cost, and reselling of the product.

Returns are not just monetary losses but often deter customers from buying from you again mostly if the refund process was rough, so not only did you lose a chunk of your profit but also a customer.

But what if there was a solution to counter both of these issues?

Exchanges are a simple way to kill these two birds with one stone. Exchanges involve replacing the item that your customer is unhappy with a different size, color, or an entirely different product of the same price.

How do exchanges save you the money and the customer? 

Exchanges help save you a ton of money because you finally end up making the sale, your inventory is no longer blocked and the shipping charges are somewhat compensated by the exchange logistics cost.

In case you offer a gift card in exchange, the customer is compelled to come back to your store and make a purchase for the same amount or more often than not, for a higher amount.

Now coming to the part where exchanges help you retain customers, this happens because the customer here had the intent to buy and bought the product, if they do not end up using the product for reasons like it is damaged, the wrong size, or an unflattering color and it is simply returned.

In such a case the customer has no relation to your brand, moreover, they have a negative brand image now because the item they ordered turned out faulty or of no use.

Here when you provide exchanges, it shows that you are committed to a good standard of services and care about them, they also end up buying another product and in cases of a gift card, they come back to your shop again, hence forming a habit.

All this leads to the customer being retained for the long run!

Simple Steps to Automate Exchanges

As amazing as it is to offer exchanges to your customers, the process can be pretty tedious, especially if you are managing the operations manually. Exchanges act against the business rather than for it in situations like – if the exchange arrives late, the product the customer wants is out of stock, etc.

So, how do you manage exchanges efficiently to ensure a good customer experience?

This is possible by automating exchanges, this ensures they are smooth and seamless for you and the customers both. 

The best way to do that is to hire a third-party returns solution like Shipway. Let’s see how Shipway automates your exchanges below:

1. You can offer multiple exchange options to the customers, like allowing them to replace their items with: 

• The same type of item.
• Other variants of the item.
• A different product.

You also have the option to hide stocked-out variants or the ones with a higher price

2. You can easily push the status of the exchange on Shopify automatically.

3. You can also select products that cannot be exchanged.

4. If the product your customer wants is out of stock then you can simply offer a store credit to them so that they return to your store and shop again.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we now know how bad exchanges are for an e-commerce seller not just in terms of monetary losses but in terms of customer experience as well. So, move to a comprehensive returns solution like Shipway to give your customers a smooth returns experience. 

Shipway is an all-in-one shipping solution, that simplifies your ecommerce logistics process with its return automation and order fulfillment solutions. It automates your returns and exchange process, generates instant refunds and makes tracking for returns easy. In short, Shipway can help you streamline your returns and exchanges for a better customer experience.

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