Improving Product Returns Presents Biggest Opportunity for Retailers

When asked directly what aspects they would like retailers to improve, 58 percent of online shoppers chose free or discounted shipping, followed by ease of returns and exchanges (42 percent) and variety of brands and products available (38 percent). However, a quadrant analysis charting the importance of each factor versus customer satisfaction reveals that free shipping is one of the least important factors contributing to overall online shopping satisfaction. In contrast, ease of returns and exchanges ranked among the factors which scored high in importance but low in satisfaction. Given the derived importance and shoppers’ express desire for improvement in the returns process, retailers have an opportunity to make a notable improvement in customer satisfaction by focusing on improving the ease of returns and exchanges.