Breaking the returns cycle
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Understanding why consumers return online fashion purchases is a major step towards reducing them, says Sarah Curran MBE, MD EMEA at True Fit.
The battle to reduce the volume of returned clothing and footwear – as high as 70% for some brands – has largely been fought on the inward rather than the outward journey; most of the tech solutions available concentrate on optimising logistics in order to cut the cost of taking the returns back into the supply chain.
That capability is important, but it has tended to overshadow the various factors that lead to a return in the first place. Some of the most obvious factors are known to Ecommerce teams whose job it is to present goods online as attractively but also as authentically as possible, a goal that has thrown up a whole generation of optimising technologies to make clothes look great but also as accessible as possible even while they remain in the realm of the digital.
Here are a number of both common as well as less well-known considerations that once understood, can not only dramatically reduce the volume of return but can build and cement relationships with customers to raise spend and create long-term loyalty.
Fit is not everything
Consumers want their clothes to fit of course, but also to flatter. When a style is the right size, fits and flatters, this results in a shopper that is thrilled with their experience and the brand. Another type of customer may be between sizes, leading them to size bracket, by which shoppers order two or more sizes of the same product with the intention of returning one or more.
The answer is first to head this behaviour off before it starts, by offering fit recommendation tools so shoppers get into the perfect fit for their body shape and preferences the first time, whether they are a new or returning customer to the site. Secondly, pop-ups can be used to prompt shoppers who have put multiple sizes of the same garment or shoes in their cart to register to receive a fit recommendation before checking out. This has been shown to reduce fit related returns for multi brand retailers by 24%.
Item not as described
In the perfect world of the online catalogue, garments are shown to their best advantage, which generally means lying flat or perfectly fitted to models. Although there have been gradual changes to address this problem, the pandemic accelerated the move to User Generated Content (UGC).
Brands had to ship samples to influencers or models who would photograph themselves in natural surroundings instead of leveraging professional studio settings and equipment. This resulted in real, human UGC and videos with natural lighting that connect buyers to how the garment will look when it arrives. Showing a garment on various body types connects shoppers to a brand they can relate to and helps them understand how a style will look on their body.
The impact of the impulse
Impulse buying has been perpetuated by the increase in digital and social shopping, or what has been coined ‘discovery commerce’. Because shoppers are not carving out time to shop in a shopping centre or mall to buy, we see that much of the spending that takes place is less planned and budgeted.
Shopping now happens as people live their day to day lives glued to their mobile devices, and impulse buying is at an all-time high. Shoppers buy without having ever set an intention to shop because they are being served relevant ads as they scroll social media.
Data shows that return rates rise as unit prices increase and they also rise as average order value increases. Impulse returns are difficult for retailers to identify and manage as they cannot effectively collect data to understand how to connect with consumers that have high intent to keep their purchase. However, remorse itself can be reduced by things like Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services, particularly important in times of recession and for luxury brands to become more accessible to aspirational buyers.
Style exploration
Style exploration and experimentation tend not to show up on the reason to return code survey.
Shoppers have to commit to buying clothing and shoes they have been unable to try on in a store when they shop digitally. This behaviour is common for consumers who are buying ahead of a vacation, special occasion or to refresh their wardrobe for the new season ahead.
However, data shows that, as unit purchasing increases, the return rate does not also rise. This indicates that shoppers who engage in style sampling or style exploration are showing high intent, interest and engagement and may find themselves keeping more items than they intended when their shipment arrives. Naturally, this type of shopper should be encouraged and brands should invest in building lifetime value.
Conclusion
Ultimately, brands have more common than competitive ground when it comes to cutting returns, and would benefit from collaboration and connectedness to compel manufacturers to, if not standardise sizing, at least get closer to it. Different fabrications and construction details will always lead to fit variance for even the most fit focused brands. This is where fit guidance that connects product construction details to consumer preferences is critical to getting shoppers into the right size.
Fit is a broken system because of the continued lack of standardisation in sizing across the apparel industry but has only grown with the rise of ecommerce and the globalisation of fashion. In addition to collaborating with other brands, companies can also implement a culture of continuous learning by staying close to customers’ behaviours and preferences, and then adjusting the fit and product offering based on real time insights.
To achieve this, brands should create cross-functional project teams that can work across multiple departments, each of which may be as much a contributor as a mitigator of returns. In this way they can act on customer insight as well as fabrication, design elements or grading anomalies, on their journey to a better understanding of each and every customer’s fit needs.
About True Fit
True Fit is the leading platform apparel and footwear retailers leverage to optimize fit guidance and drive confidence for shoppers. Its platform consists of the broadest footwear, apparel and consumer data, representing 17,000 brands and more than 80 million active members. True Fit's dataset is organized and connected to streamline the buying experience, drive loyalty with shoppers and deliver unparalleled insights and data services to retailers.