While some retailers have made progress even without data transparency and analytics capabilities by, for example, adjusting policy and improving process efficiency, rigor and granularity around data and analytics can unlock the full value of returns management.
Tobin Moore, CEO of Optoro, told us, “Data has the power to transform retail returns and modernize a process that for many retailers remains a pen-and-paper business. With the right information combined with the use of predictive analytics and machine learning, retailers can quickly find the most profitable disposition channel for a return, avoid unnecessary shipping and redundant touches by optimizing the best path from the initiation of the return. The right analytical approach to returns from the outset helps to fend off depreciation, reduces the number of items that end up in landfills, and even boosts revenue by driving repurchases of goods.”