It’s safe to say that almost everyone has returned a product that they bought, either in-store or online. The reason for the return isn’t relevant—maybe a shirt didn’t fit, a toy arrived damaged, or they just decided they didn’t want the merchandise anymore. Whatever the reason, the retailer or manufacturer needs to have the proper return infrastructure in place to process and track these returns, ensuring that inventory is replenished or updated, and the customer receives a replacement product or a refund or credit is issued.

G2 launches new Returns Management Category

According to third-party logistics provider Whiplash, nearly 30% of items purchased online are returned. This number, along with increased online sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is forcing e-commerce retailers, manufacturers, and third-party logistics (3PL) providers to be even more vigilant about managing these returns. Therefore, G2 is creating a new Returns Management category. G2 currently has 42 products in the category, with more surely to be added in the future.

This software, sometimes referred to as reverse logistics, is a solution that helps manage the return process for retailers, online sellers, manufacturers, and 3PL companies. This includes communicating with customers through portals or self-service platforms to manage shipping options, tracking, inventory, refunds and credits, replacements, and print prepaid shipping labels. Some returns management solutions allow companies to personalize return portals with custom branding or integrate directly with a retailer's website.

Many return policies are forgiving, which leads to a significant amount of returns. This increases costs and challenges for retailers, sellers, and manufacturers. Returns management software helps contain and organize these issues by reducing the turnaround time for returns, maximizing value recovery, minimizing returns processing costs, and simplifying the refund process. Companies use this software to maintain customer satisfaction by setting return rules and policies, providing return timeframes, and offering certain returns to be auto-approved.

The returns management software space isn’t new, but its functionality and importance have become more relevant than ever before. With fierce competition amongst online retailers, one key differentiating factor is customer satisfaction. Many returns solutions offer a complete ecosystem to create and manage return policies, provide workflows to create, confirm, or cancel returns, track returned items from pickup to delivery, and even analyze the value of returns and their impact on revenue. With improved turnaround times for refunds or replacements, and a simplification of refund processes for the customer, returns management software can lead to a more satisfying e-commerce experience for everyone involved.