Navigating Challenges to Achieve a Successful AI-Driven Retail Experience

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions over the last few years and the burgeoning use of generative AI, in particular, is revolutionizing retail. From the supply chain to consumer-facing chatbots, AI has emerged as a catalyst for online retail...

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A Tale of Two Customers: AI-Driven Return Authorization Impacts Loyalty

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Handle Post-Holiday Returns with Care: Top Strategies to Limit Losses

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Returnless Refunds: 4 Risks and How to Mitigate Them

A returnless refund—the practice of refunding or replacing a consumer’s purchase without requiring that the item itself be returned—has been an unpublished option that retailers have used at their discretion for many years. The decision is gaining popularity....

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Will BOPIS and BORIS Replace Delivery?

Covid-19 accelerated omnichannel shopping trends, such as BOPIS (buy-online-pickup-in-store) and BORIS (buy-online-return-in-store). Now retailers need to have a deep understanding of those consumer omnichannel purchase and return behaviors. Case in point,....

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Is Free Shipping Dead?

Everyone knows shipping is costly. Return shipping can be even costlier. In an effort to give consumers what they want, when they want it (aka good consumer service), retailers are running up costs for labor and packaging by shipping one item at a time. This....

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6 Trends for 2022

What are the big trends in retail? See six highlights in under six minutes. Retail Touchpoints magazine interviewed retail technology vendors at NRF Big Show 2022. They summarized powerful trends in the marketplace: the convergence of social commerce and....

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Return Rates Affects Everyone, Not Just Retailers

As a retailer, you know that the cost of returns is much more than the loss of a sale. Returns and return fraud have a cascading effect on your business’ revenue and profit. The National Retail Federation has compiled returns data for 2022 in a comprehensive....

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Retail Returns: Your Problem Isn’t Logistics

Overview “Sell to your consumers wherever they want to shop” was the philosophy behind much of the current expansion in retail. Store and ecommerce channels were designed to make buying easy. Receiving and processing returned merchandise, however, was a....

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Insights from 2021 US Retail Returns Analysis

The rapid shift toward more omnichannel transactions continued in 2021, and the value of retail returns hit $761 billion—an unimaginable figure five years ago.

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8 Thorns That May Be Harming Your Ecommerce Return Experience

In the fable “Androcles and the Lion,” a boy removes a thorn from a lion’s paw and gains the lion’s loyalty for life. Recently, our team of researchers vetted the ecommerce return process at 55 omnichannel retail chains in search of thorns. They found eight....

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The Results Are In: 2021 Holiday Sales and Returns Were Like No Other

The 2021 holiday shopping season was like no other, and it surprised us all. Retail sales from November 1st to December 31st grew 14.1% over the 2020 sales numbers, despite the challenges facing shoppers and retailers. And this rise in sales (especially....

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What Does It Take to Be a Leader in Omnichannel Returns?

Many businesses have ecommerce capabilities, but most need to improve the consumer experience surrounding return transactions. This may be expected following the rapid growth of online sales and omnichannel returns during 2020 and 2021. Retailers often treat....

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Are Your Omnichannel Return Capabilities Falling Behind the Curve?

The past few years delivered unprecedented growth in online shopping and a corresponding explosion in return rates. Ecommerce returns are now two to three times greater than returns for brick-and-mortar purchases. In 2021, one out of five of online purchases....

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Does Your Return Policy Protect Your Bottom Line?

In the past 24 months, you have experienced multiple operational pivots and changes within your retail store. With each shift, you have worked diligently to provide a positive customer experience while remaining as profitable as possible. If you’re like many....

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