New Buyers and Returned Items

Pundits love to hound you about returns, about making things right for the customer.

Maybe you don't have to do that.

In the business we've reviewed for the past two weeks, first-time buyers who lost their entire first order to returns (i.e. the customer returned everything) were 58% more likely to buy again than were customers who returned nothing.

Oh.

Always remember that when a customer returns something the customer might well replace the item. Not exchanges ... but the customer actually / physically buying something different to meet the needs of the customer.

The company I'm analyzing learned three fascinating things:

• Canceled Items caused new buyers to be MORE likely to purchase in the future.
• Returned Items caused new buyers to be MORE likely to purchase in the future.
• Discounts/Promotions caused new buyers to be MORE likely to purchase in the future.

You've got enough information there ... without anything else I'm sharing in upcoming posts, to put your entire merchandising / operations / marketing / creative teams into action. They all have a purpose. They could all work in an integrated manner, with a purpose.

P.S.: This is the stuff I work on in a "Hillstrom's Newbies" project. Now I know that some of you are going to unsub right now ... "HOW DARE HE SELL US STUFF???" is the feedback I get. So go do the work. Go talk to your analyst and get busy ... you get the benefit of what I'm saying and you pay nothing. How do you beat that?