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5 Tips to Reduce the Return Rate in Your Website

Kirsti Earl Written by Kirsti Earl - Oct 29, 2014

The With Christmas around the corner, many of you are preparing for a peak selling period. But after the presents are unwrapped, you expect the harsh reality that returns will soon follow. Many businesses experience high return rates, especially those businesses operating in the fashion industry. But it’s great to know there are a number of things that you can do to decrease the chances of having your products returned.

Here are 5 tips on what to do on the product page.

Tip 1: Detailed Product Description

Giving your customers enough information to make an informed decision like in the example below can lessen the chances they will return the item.

Paytrail-detailed-product-info

Tip 2: High Quality Product Images

Clear, true to color and high quality images are extremely important. The customer needs to be able to imagine the item without actually seeing the item in person. The best way to help them with this is by providing many images of the item: front, back, close up of the garment if it has a pattern or print and the garment on actual person so they can see how it sits. If possible offer a 360 degree viewing capability.

Here’s a good example of what I mean, although I wish they had put the sweatshirt on a child and given a 360 view of it.

Paytrail-good-quality-product-images

Tip 3: Size Guides

Make sure you offer sizes and size guides that your customers can relate to. This especially important when selling internationally to ensure the customer can select the proper size for them.

Provide a size guide that is easily accessible on the product page like this

Paytrail-size-guide

Tip 4: Customer Reviews

When customers can share their thoughts and opinions about the product it helps future customers determine if the product is the right match for their needs. According to studies, 63% of customers are more likely to purchase from a site that has customer reviews. And studies also show that customer reviews are more trusted than product descriptions from the company.

Here’s a good example of a site using customer reviews to its advantage.

Paytrail-customer-reviews

Tip 5: Return Policy

Make your return policy easy to locate and easy to understand. Placing your return policy on your product pages helps the customer when deciding whether to make the purchase. Customers are not always completely sure about a product when making the purchase decision and having the information readily available and easy to understand can increase buyer confidence.

Here’s a great example of a return policy that gives quick & basic information a customer would want to know and for detailed info on returns there is a link to click to review the complete policy.

Paytrail-return-policy

References:

How fashion ecommerce retailers can reduce online returns

Handling online returns: 14 best practice tips

What can retailers do to reduce returns rates?

4 Things Shoppers Want in an Online Retailer's Return Policy (Infographic)

Virtual Fitting Rooms: Can They Reduce Return Rates?

Ecommerce consumer reviews: why you need them and how to use them

Read also:

Neglecting Product Images – An Effective Way to Destroy an Online Shop

Get the best product images by using the following tips

4 Ways to Decrease Shopping Cart Abandonment on Your Website

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