Product returns can be a drain on your business's resources. You don't want to dedicate such a significant chunk of your annual budget to processing product returns, giving refunds and shipping replacements back to customers. You'd like to shrink this business expense as much as possible. 

How can you do that? You could make returning products less appealing to customers by asking them to pay return fees. The e-commerce behemoth Amazon recently announced that it would be taking this approach. It plans to charge customers a return fee when they try to send back certain products through UPS. The potential threat of an extra charge for the returns could encourage customers to be more careful with their online shopping choices. 

While a return fee could be an effective solution for minimizing returns, it shouldn't be the first solution that your business turns to. There are other ways that your business can minimize product returns without penalizing the customer.

1. Perfect Your Product Listings

Customers might be returning their products because they misunderstood what they were purchasing on your website. 

To address this problem, you should make sure that your product listings are clear and comprehensive. Important details, like product dimensions and materials, should be prominently displayed so that the customer can't miss that information. Provide plenty of professional photographs of the product. And, if you can, add a link for customer reviews. This way, the customer can see what previous buyers had to say about the product. The right review could sway them toward pressing "buy" or dissuade them from the purchase altogether.

When you give your customers access to all of these product details, they are more likely to make an informed purchase and feel satisfied with what they receive.

2. Use AR Tools

One thing that could help customers shop for the right products is an AR (augmented reality) tool. AR tools can mimic the experience of going to a brick-and-mortar store and trying the products in person, like how online glasses retailers offer virtual try-ons. Virtual try-ons allow customers to upload a picture of their face and put on virtual pairs of glasses to find their favorite options.

Some AR tools make shopping online and in person much easier. For instance, the furniture company IKEA has an AR app that allows users to re-design their home spaces. The app allows them to visualize how they would organize the room with new IKEA furniture and home décor. 

An AR tool could make the shopping experience that much easier for your customers, which means that they'll be less likely to order a product and send it right back.

3. Improve Quality Control

Are the wrong products being shipped? If so, you have a problem with Quality Control. Quality Control is easier to manage when you're running a small business where you can personally select and pack every single product order. You can trust yourself to avoid any mistakes.

Larger businesses will have multiple employees working in a warehouse (whether that is a dedicated warehouse or a shared warehouse). The more people you have taking on the jobs of product selection and packaging, the more you risk shipment mistakes. You can limit these mistakes on the warehouse floor with the help of inventory management software. 

(Photo : Tom Fisk from Pexels)

4. Guarantee Safe Transportation

Another reason why you may be facing more returns: product damages. If your products are arriving to their final destinations in poor condition, customers aren't going to be happy, and they are going to return the items. They may demand full refunds and they may not return as customers again. You don't want that to happen.

How can you guarantee safe the transportation of your products? First, consider what type of shipping container you are moving the products in. If the shipping container is old and in poor condition, the products inside are more at risk of succumbing to damages. You can minimize this risk by going through a website like Boxhub and finding a shipping container in the right size and grade. If you want to be completely sure that your container is in excellent shape, you can get a one-trip grade shipping container. This container is practically brand-new. It has only been on a single international trip before becoming available for purchase. 

A brand-new shipping container won't have accumulated wear and tear from years of international shipments. While it will be your sturdiest and most reliable choice, it can still present a problem: condensation. The container's walls are not built with insulation, so they will not be effective at preventing condensation. If the inside of the container has too much condensation, your products could get damp throughout the journey and suffer from moisture damage.

You can combat condensation by adding desiccant pouches inside the product packaging. Desiccants will absorb the moisture in the air, preventing it from soaking into other nearby objects (like your products). Desiccant bags and poles can also be placed around the container's interior for added protection. This should control the moisture levels through every step of the shipment and keep everything in top condition.

Before you consider charging customers to reduce return rates, look to these solutions. These solutions could drastically improve customer satisfaction and retention, all while minimizing the number of returns that you have to handle every single year.