It’s post-holiday return season: How marketers can make the best of it

Return rates of 15 percent, 20 percent, and 30 percent can crush the bottom line profit margins of retailers over the holidays,” Ed Kennedy, senior director of commerce at commerce and content technology provider Episerver, said. “But consumers have come to expect and even demand generous return policies. Many consumers knowingly purchase more than they intend to keep with the understanding retailers like Amazon and others have set the bar high for return policies and have even turned it into a loyalty-building experience in the case of Amazon Prime and Amazon Local return stores. Retailers can mitigate the risk of shipping costs eating into their margins by offering more generous promotions for orders that can be combined into one shipment on the initial order,” Kennedy said. “This can reduce upfront shipping costs and even create a small profit for retailers that charge shipping fees to cover the risk of return shipping costs