As I write, online and high street stores the world over are preparing for their busiest period of the year.
Figures published recently by the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that November sees more e-commerce orders placed than during any other month in the calendar.
The retail peak season coincides – perhaps unsurprisingly – with the annual high for the number of parcels carried by logistics companies.
Not too long ago, the vast majority of such shipments seemed only to go one-way: delivered to consumers’ homes or ‘click and collect’ points.
Since the mass adoption of e-commerce, however, a growing proportion of goods bought online ultimately finds its way back to the brands from which they’ve been purchased.
One estimate in the run-up to Christmas last year suggested that the rate of returns for fashion and clothing items, for example, with which different retailers were confronted ranged between 40 per cent and 70 per cent.
It is something that we are particularly alive to, given that more retailers now rely on drop2shop to help with the significant volume of goods sent to and back by Irish consumers.
As media have reported in the last week or so, a new report has highlighted the contribution to the returns traffic made by ‘serial returners’.
According to the study, they account for just over 10 per cent of UK online shoppers but still generate almost one-quarter of returns.
To put that another way, they are responsible for £6.6 billion (€7.86 billion) worth of the country’s online buys which are later returned.
An article in The London Times has given them a name, dubbing them ‘returnaholics’.
The latest research also found that an equal share of returns resulted from those people who were slow to send back their unwanted goods.
The issue creates a delicate problem common to retailers in the UK, Ireland and much further afield: how to manage the number of returns without discouraging repeat business.
It is more than simply a matter of the customer service, logistics and cost which are entailed.
There is a need to reconcile the “conscious consumerism” espoused by those younger shoppers who buy and return most frequently with the environmental impact of their online habits.
Earlier this year, Mintel reported that ethical factors influence the shopping habits of 50 per cent of consumers.
Yet that research, in turn, followed calculations by the British Fashion Council that the returns process produces an estimated 750,000 tonnes of C02 in the UK alone.
The Council recommended that the answer seemed to lie in a system which is simple and cost-effective for shoppers and shippers alike.
drop2shop is regarded as just such a system by major UK brands and thousands of Irish consumers.
It is a truly nationwide network, allowing consumers to pick up and return purchases at more than 500 premises, including those of the health and beauty retailer Boots and some of Ireland’s most popular convenience stores, such as Eurospar, Spar, Mace, XL and Londis, which are operated by BWG.
drop2shop is also fast and paperless, using unique QR codes rather than requiring the issuing and affixing of labels to returns.
Given that we don’t have our own dedicated vans or trucks, relying instead on the same BWG vehicles which bring stock to participating stores.
BWG has the largest fleet of CNG (compressed natural gas) powered trucks in operation in Ireland.
As a result, we have together been able to reduce the expected carbon footprint for our services by more than one million road miles and 150,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions over the last year.
Furthermore, drop2shop provides retailers and their customers with a simple, transparent and cost-effective method for returning goods, which helps when it comes to processing refunds.
All the evidence suggests that ‘boomerang goods’ are here to stay and that imposing high returns charges can adversely impact orders.
That is why drop2shop is fast gaining favour with brands and shoppers alike as a way of at least managing returns in a convenient, clear and efficient fashion.