According to Adobe Analytics, Amazon’s Prime Day shoppers spent more than $14 billion over the two-day event ($7.2 billion the first day and $7 billion the second). While Black Friday has become more of a season all its own than a single sales day, looking at one-day spend between the two events shows Prime Day getting closer to matching its holiday cousin: shoppers spent nearly $9.8 billion on Black Friday 2023.
With those spending levels getting closer together, Prime Day return issues can reveal important lessons to help you prepare for Black Friday. Fixing any challenges now can help you improve efficiency and customer satisfaction during the highest-stakes sales period of the year.
Analyzing Prime Day Data to Reduce Returns
While the surge in shopping around Prime Day and holidays is a happy time for retailers, the aftermath can be a lot less cheery. Capital One Shopping reports that the average ecommerce return rate is more than 26%. That’s a tough volume of returns to deal with any time of year, but when you’re facing down a quarter of $10 billion in sales coming back, any small wrinkle in your returns process can quickly turn into chaos.
Another reason to analyze your Prime Day returns is to uncover crucial information that can reduce your future returns, such as:
- Which products or product categories have the highest return rates?
- What are the reasons for returns? Any recurring themes in them, such as incomplete product descriptions or quality issues?
- What are customers saying in reviews or feedback after purchase and/or after returning their item?
Using this information, you can come up with a plan to reduce returns and take some pressure off your reverse logistics team during the next peak season. A few actions you may consider before Black Friday include:
- Sprucing up your product descriptions to ensure they’re accurate and complete.
- Ensure all product descriptions include sizes and dimensions.
- Include clear photos of all product variations so customers can make an informed choice.
Using Prime Day Returns Data to Prepare for Black Friday
No matter how great your product descriptions are, of course, you are going to have returns – which leads us to the most important reason to analyze your Prime Day returns performance: optimizing your returns process ahead of the next big sales rush.
Your return process has a big impact on customer satisfaction and retention. Make it a smooth, easy process and you have a much better chance of getting that customer to buy from you again.
That’s why it’s so important to spot any hiccups you encountered in your Prime Day returns and fix them before Black Friday. The goal should be to move items through your returns desk and get refunds or replacements processed as quickly as possible.
Analyzing the data is just the first step; closing those reverse logistics gaps requires a hard look at your processes and a discussion with your team to develop a more optimized plan. At a minimum, you need to be prepared for the high volume of returns by:
- Planning the right staffing levels to handle your anticipated level of returns.
- Setting clear and easy to follow inspection and dispositioning rules so your team can process each item more easily and quickly.
- Having enough space set aside in your facility for staging and inspection of returned items.
Need some help handling all of that planning and optimization, especially during high-volume sales periods? Octolan Returns Desk walks your team step by step through the inspection and dispositioning process. Learn more today.