How returns affect peak season
Kelli Trapnell
·July 27, 2023
Peak season—the span of time encompassing Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the Holidays—is approaching quickly. Is your brand prepared to build your customer base, maximize your profits, and double down on customer loyalty? As strange as it may sound, returns could be the key to making the most of your peak season.
Learn more about how returns can level up your peak season. Download our newest ebook, How Loop Can Prepare You for Peak Season, here.
In this blog, we’ll discuss how optimizing your returns can help you do the following this peak season:
- Build your customer base
- Maximize your sales profits
- Double down on customer loyalty
Not sure where to start? We’ve prepared this quiz to help you determine your top priority during peak season.
Build your customer base
Peak season is a great time of year to work on building your customer base. Increased sales and promotions, combined with higher levels of shopping overall, plus the pressure of the approaching holiday season all make for a great atmosphere for finding and attracting new shoppers. If you’re hoping to build your customer base during peak season, it’s a smart move to attract gift-givers with compelling offers and discounts, to bring clarity to your product listings and descriptions, and to provide exceptional customer service.
But you can use your returns management solution to help you prepare to welcome new customers during peak season, too. For instance, did you know that 93% of shoppers check a retailer’s return policy before buying from them for the first time? A few ways that returns can help prepare you for customer acquisition this peak season include: extending clarity to your return policies, providing gift receipts for BFCM buys, and using return data to inform your discount strategy.
Maximize your sales profits
Maybe you’d rather focus on maximizing your sales profits during this peak season. Why not? For many online merchants, peak season sales outperform most of the rest of the year’s numbers. Shopper activity is heightened, and so long as you have your inventory under control, you should only stand to make money this peak season. Some smart strategies for maximizing profits during peak season include making a plan in advance, implementing up-selling and cross-selling strategies smartly, and optimizing your inventory management.
Though it may seem counterintuitive, your peak season returns can also help make you money this peak season, or at the very least, keep you from losing your hard won profits. To set yourself up for the maximum sales profits, there are a few things you’ll want to make sure you do with post-purchase in mind before peak season really gets underway. First, ensure that your tech stack integrates with your returns. The last thing you need is delays when processing exchanges during this time of the year. Next, leverage your returns data to provide insightful and meaningful product recommendations at the point of sale. Lastly, you’ll want to make sure you’re saving on returns as much as possible with smart shipping options and pre-negotiated rates.
Double down on customer loyalty
If you already have a strong, loyal customer base going into peak season this year, it could be a great idea to capitalize on that loyalty. There are a few great ways to leverage your existing customer base without burning them out, driving them away, or sparking feelings of betrayal. If you’re hoping to double down on customer loyalty during this peak season, it’s smart to offer exclusive perks to loyal customers, leverage user-generated content, and continuously communicate and engage.
Your returns are a great place to take full advantage of customer loyalty. Returns are inherently a customer service interaction, even if you’ve fully automated your returns portal (which is also a smart move, since peak season returns can get tricky). In order to leverage your returns management solution to help you double down on customer loyalty this peak season, you’ll want to do a few things. Make returns feel personal. Find ways to save the sale with exchanges. And of course, you’ll want to offer in-demand return options. These are all ways returns can help you double down on customer loyalty.
Don’t have a returns management solution heading into peak season?
In this article
Stay in the loop
Subscribe for product updates and Loop's biweekly newsletter.
Retain more revenue with Loop today
With Loop, your brand can offer everything from refunds to direct exchanges to shopper incentives and more. Even better? These exchanges build your business.