Returns

Articles on the new nemesis of ecom – returns.

  1. Technology & Innovation
One of the most promising changes in the retail market has been the regrowth of consumer confidence. At the end of 2023, both financial well-being and future financial confidence hit the highest levels in two years. This has been facilitated by the easing rate of inflation and while, consumer attitudes are not back to where […]
  1. Data & Insights
The months after the holiday season can be chaotic due to a flurry of returns, accompanied with the pressure to meet new sales goals and start the year off strong. This year, retailers anticipate an approximate $25 billion in fraudulent return claims, representing approximately 16.5 percent of the total returns during this period. For retailers […]
  1. Data & Insights
The shipping and delivery phase of an e-commerce order is filled with opportunities or ‘touchpoints’ that you can capitalize on to convert one-time shoppers into repeat customers and spread positive word of mouth to influence their close ones, all while hoping that you don’t encounter any challenge that can infuriate your customers and get your […]
  1. Channel: Mass
Marc Lore, who ran Walmart’s US e-commerce business from 2016-2021 after he sold it his Jet e-commerce startup for $3.3 billion, has opened a new food hall inside the retailer’s Quakertown, Pennsylvania, store. Inc. reports that Lore’s new food startup, Wonder, dropped its high-tech delivery model last year, opting instead to open what it calls […]
  1. Operations & Supply Chain
Demand planning uses available data and analytics into past market behavior in and around a business to predict the future. Without these insights, business owners could make inventory misreads, marketing mistakes, shipping blunders, and hiring miscues, all eating into profit margins. By assessing your current business performance and past order histories, you can anticipate the […]
  1. Shopper & Customer
Beyond, Inc., owner of online retail brands Bed Bath & Beyond (BB&B) and Overstock, will bring back a standalone Overstock.com site in approximately five weeks rather than the September 2024 target date announced earlier. Beyond rechristened its Overstock site with the Bed Bath & Beyond name in June 2023 after it acquired the bankrupt retailer’s […]
  1. Operations & Supply Chain
It’s the way of the world that giant corporations have the resources to crush their competition, especially when they attain a dominant position in the marketplace. The goliaths of Amazon.com and eBay did this to SMBs when they started offering FREE returns of online purchases. To be fair, the big companies probably didn’t foresee the […]
  1. Technology & Innovation
An Amazon Just Walk Out technology powered store has opened at Lesley University in the US. Lesley University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its students can now experience a frictionless shopping experience on campus, with the likes of snacks and drinks available to buy. In a LinkedIn post, Brisbane Vaillancourt, Regional Vice President […]
  1. Operations & Supply Chain
Today, Mark Greaney – author of The Gray Man series of novels – returns to MNB for a conversation about his newest book, “The Chaos Agent.” I’m a big fan of Greaney’s work, and I found “The Chaos Agent” to be one of his best, a page turner that focuses on nefarious uses for AI […]
  1. Trends & External Forces
In mid-January, I had the pleasure of attending the NRF “Big Show” Conference in New York City. As always, it was great to meet new people, reconnect with prior colleagues, and finally meet some people in person — we have been on video calls way too often in the past three years! As expected, retailers […]
  1. Channel: Ecommerce & Digital
Repurpose Global, an organization that brings brand leaders, consumers and policymakers together to combat plastic waste, has launched a $1 million fund to give companies equitable access to reuse and refill solutions. Approximately 70% of plastic reduction is achievable through reuse, refill and new delivery models, according to the UN. However, brands face complex barriers […]
  1. Operations & Supply Chain
Modern consumers clearly value lenient, streamlined and cheap — if not free — return policies. At the same time, the cost of processing these returns has never been higher. To further complicate matters, a given retailer’s biggest returners are often some of their best customers. A majority of shoppers surveyed said they make the most […]
  1. Data & Insights
Not just post-purchase or even e-commerce, but most blogs that you sit down to read, either in your leisure time or on the go — tell you two things. You can either do this or do not do this. How about something different for a bit? How about sitting and just looking at memes that […]
  1. Shopper & Customer
Our rapidly digitalizing and globalizing world hasn’t been kind to the retail industry these past few years, especially for brick-and-mortar stores. As a result, many retailers have begun to wrestle with questions concerning the nature of the retail experience and what it means to succeed in 2024. Despite this anxiety, brands can be sure of […]
  1. Technology & Innovation
Year in and year out, retailers are always working to give shoppers a richer, more rewarding experience. This never-ending journey requires retailers to carefully balance customer demands against their own budgets and margins. Increasingly, retail businesses look to the latest technology for solutions to their biggest problems.  At the National Retail Federation’s Big Show 2024, […]
  1. Data & Insights
The success of an e-commerce business depends on a lot of factors — venturing into new markets, net profits made during a quarter, rapport shared with customers and the general public, offering quality products and services, etc. As a merchant, you initiate and perform a list of activities that contribute to said success — be […]
  1. Shopper & Customer
New Balance has become the latest company to launch its own resale website, following the steps of more than 160 brands that have so far adopted resale. The sportswear and lifestyle brand will enable consumers to shop and sell pre-owned New Balance shoes via a dedicated website in the U.S, which is powered by Archive Resale, […]
  1. Operations & Supply Chain
After years of free and easy return policies, retailers are working to reduce rampant return rates. Nearly half now charge fees to offset rising costs. Popular brands like H&M, Zara, and DSW, among others, are opting to add fees to combat environmental, freight, labor and packaging costs associated with product returns. But are these punitive […]
  1. Operations & Supply Chain
Following last year’s school sports day grants campaign, Spar UK is offering another £50,000 to support schools in their local communities across the UK. The 2024 Spar School Sports Day Grants campaign will give Spar shoppers in England, Scotland and Wales the chance to apply… This story continues at ‘Spar Sports Day Grants Campaign’ returns […]
  1. Technology & Innovation
Retail and 2024 are both in full swing, and both the year and commerce kicked off at the National Retail Federation in New York City in early January. This is always a vibrant, engaging and important whirlwind for me… and an experience I look forward to every year. After all, as a self-described retail geek, […]
  1. Data & Insights
In 2023, the e-commerce industry was largely focused on strengthening brand equity, enhancing the customer experience, and keeping up with the evolution fueled by new platforms and artificial intelligence-based technologies. Notably, the adoption of composable commerce, which refers to building a modular, component-based, cloud-native tech stack, empowered companies to build the agility required to remain […]
  1. Technology & Innovation
Reacting to Amazon’s plan to create a pay tier for its Alexa smart speaker system, one MNB reader wrote: Our main household use for Alexa is to control lights, heat, and A/C.  If they start charging for it, we will stop using it.  There are many other platforms available for home control that do not […]
  1. Holiday & Events
One of the most lucrative holiday shopping times of the year is almost upon us, and retailers must be ready to capitalize on it. Text messages can play an integral role in the success of the Valentine’s Day shopping season if retailers plan ahead and utilize a strategy that can both boost sales and increase […]
  1. Shopper & Customer
Picture this: You need a new pair of running shoes so you visit a website to do a little research. Your screen fills with page after page of options. Before long, it’s information overload and you’re paralyzed by choice. You end up clicking on a pair from a brand you recognize. But that logo alone […]
  1. Operations & Supply Chain
For retailers, the game has changed when it comes to returns. Pandemic-era purchase habits have pushed online sales higher than ever before, but the double-edged sword is that return rates are also through the roof. Still, with consumer habits shifting more online, returns can provide retailers with a rich opportunity to turn a negative into […]
  1. Data & Insights
The post-purchase is an exciting phase for your customers, as it is the last station before they get to their destination called happiness from collecting their orders. However, with most e-commerce merchants not having much awareness about the post-purchase phase and unwillingly neglecting its events, the ‘exciting phase’ is also one of the ‘most anxious’ […]
  1. Channel: Ecommerce & Digital
Ann Summers, a lingerie and sex toys retailer, has awarded Evri a multi-million-pound delivery contract. It has been selected as the sole partner to handle all of Ann Summers’ business-to-customer parcels including delivery pick-up, drop-off (PUDO) and returns. Evri has a network of more than 13,000 PUDO locations including ParcelShops and lockers. According to the […]
  1. Corporate Finance
In today’s financial trading sphere, a technological upheaval is reshaping the status quo through the advent of trading bots. These automated trading systems are not just tools but revolutionaries in their own right, transforming the way trades are executed in financial markets. They operate with a level of speed and precision that was once thought […]
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  1. Acquisitions, Divestitures & Mergers
  2. Channel: Home Improvement
  3. Acquisitions, Divestitures & Mergers
  4. Corporate Finance
  5. Operations & Supply Chain
Home Depot recently announced its acquisition of SRS Distribution for a whopping $18.25 billion. This hefty investment marks the company’s boldest stride yet to seize a larger share of the professional market, particularly targeting contractors and roofers.
  1. Media & Marketing
  2. Corporate Strategy
  3. Media & Marketing
  4. Data & Insights
  5. Shopper & Customer
  6. Trends & External Forces
See this visualization first on the Voronoi app. Car Brand Loyalty in 2024 This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources. This graphic visualizes the best and worst car brands in terms of brand loyalty. […]
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  11. Operations & Supply Chain
Shoptalk always brings the best and brightest minds of the industry together for four days packed with insights, networking opportunities, trend predictions and so much more. This year, the spring event in Las Vegas was no exception. But like many other major industry events, Shoptalk can feel like you’re sprinting a marathon — there’s so […]
  1. Department: Consumer Durables
  2. Department: Consumer Durables
  3. Corporate Strategy
  4. Corporate Finance
  5. Partnerships & Alt Profit
  6. Shopper & Customer
  7. Trends & External Forces
  8. Stores & Formats
Amid faltering demand for shoes and clothing as well as slipping digital sales, Nike Inc. said last week that it will bank a lot more on the thing it has spent the past several years turning away from: other retailers. Executives discussed those plans on Nike’s earnings call, during which it announced that while fiscal […]

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