The Dollars and Cents of Retail Returns

By Mark Schwans, Newmine

January 31, 2023

Q&A with Retail Finance Expert Scott Glaser

According to the National Retail Federation, businesses expect around $816 billion of merchandise to be returned this year. Additionally, the rise of inflation and subsequent interest rate increases by the US Fed, consumers have been pulling back on spending. As a result, over 90% of retailers say that returns are outpacing revenue. While retailers have been changing policies and adding fees to mitigate the problem, there has been little evidence on their impact on returns.

We spoke with Scott Glaser, the former Chief Finance Officer of Lane Bryant and Catherines for Ascena Retail Group, to learn why he believes retailers need to think differently about returns.

"Our industry has done a lot of research into the drivers of customer returns. They range from product and packaging quality issues to wrong size, bad product information on the website, and just consumers changing their minds. What we’ve learned, though, is that more than 70% of consumer returns are driven by factors that are controllable by the retailer. 70%!"

Read the full article here: https://www.newmine.com/blog/the-dollars-and-cents-of-retail-returns?utm_medium=email&utm_content=KS2z3tdLh2HTRMDFXcayshoyI-Kw5xj8to0Vg7W7w8EiecF12Tedrx6S6g9dnZc9