How to Reduce RTO in E-Commerce? [A Complete Guide]

One of the most underestimated and implicit issues has been reducing RTO in e-commerce shops. Sellers are experiencing a high influx of orders as e-commerce is starting to make major strides in all areas of the world. As internet penetration deepens and finds its way into India’s inroads, we should expect an unprecedented growth in sellers and buyers’ number.

They are often plagued with a typical problem, Return to Origin or RTO orders, as sellers face a mountain of openings and orders every day. This post will look at what RTO is, why it happens, and the best practices for the e-commerce shop to reduce RTO losses.

Return To Origin (RTO)

A critical aspect of e-commerce is now Return to Origin or RTO. Simply put, RTO applies to the case where the buyer is not delivered with a package and is returned to the vendor instead.

Why Is the Shipment Going Back to the Seller?

• To collect the package, the customer is not available.
• The recipient does not approve the package.
• Wrong customer contact information

Let’s know about RTO-related costs:

• Shipping charges for the shipment to be forwarded and returned.
• Costs in Repackaging.
• Product damage.
• Costs in the handling of recalled inventory.
• The commodity is caught in transit, thereby losing importance and becoming useless at times.
• Many returned items have to be disposed of at an extra cost.
• Loss of probability.
• Cost of client turnover.

What Motivates Consumers to Return Items?

It’s important to consider why consumers are returning products in the first place before we concentrate on how you can reduce returns for your company.

The three key reasons that items are shipped back to the manufacturer are:

• Received the wrong item or size.
• Failed to fulfil the expectation/description of the item.
• On arrival, the item was defective.

A basic survey asking your consumers why they want to return a product will give you useful insight into what factors could be to blame for your on-site experience. Suppose consumers submit products back regularly because they don’t fit correctly. In that case, it’s a strong indicator that your size chart is incorrect or that you can display product measurements on the product detail page more prominently. The optimisation process can never be a game of guessing. Before starting to test ideas, finding the root of the dilemma would save you a lot of time in the long run.

Optimising the Experience on the Website to Reduce RTO in E-Commerce

When a brand is dealing with a high cost of the return, we often suggest that a combination of strategies be applied to solve the issue better. What we’ve found to be most effective in lowering returns are the following seven recommendations.

1. Implement a return policy

Promising clients will be able to buy a product to assure that if the product does not end up working out for whatever reason, they will give it back worry-free, through a simple and expedited return procedure.

There’s an explanation of why its liberal return practices are familiar to brands. Generosity increases trust, and confidence drives prospective buyers farther down the road of conversion.

2. Focus on enrichment of products

A major contributor to product returns is when a product fails to live up to the standards that were placed on the website. Having a package that you could have waited weeks to get in the mail is disappointing, just to open it up and find it’s not what you expected or needed.

• Build a headline summary that will draw the viewers.
• To build on what makes the product special, use a summary paragraph. Instead of explaining advantages, emphasis on presenting a solution.
• With a bulleted list of main product specs and features, follow the definition.
• Conclude with trust, social facts, or urgency, and provide a call-to-action to persuade the consumer to buy.

3. Introduce a dynamic sizing chart

Providing your consumers with a reliable and comprehensive sizing chart is an integral part of minimising returns for your goods. This is highly important if you are in the fashion industry, as online fashion retailers have higher return rates.

4. Elevate consumer reviews value

A perfect strategy for elevating social evidence on a Product Detail Page is to allow consumers the opportunity to leave comprehensive product feedback. Besides, it will unlock useful insight into the items that would not have been found otherwise.

Another way to get the best out of consumer feedback is to order fields such as height, weight, body shape and size and then deliver those requirements with filters.

5. Start introducing videos of products

You will want to consider adding a video feature to your Product Detail Page if consumers are sending back goods because they do not fulfil the standards set in the product description. Brand videos are now a highly successful way of raising conversion rates, and after watching a product ad, more people agree they can better visualise themselves using a product.

6. Instead of refunds, facilitate exchanges

Retailers can catch this money and keep clients coming back by making the trade process simpler. We propose that full refunds be provided for commodity returns and that items with equal value be traded immediately. It is a surefire way to make the consumers wait until the return process is full to issue a refund to get them to move to another store to find the same thing.

7. Give an email post-purchase

Sending your consumers a post-purchase email can be a highly productive tool for minimising returns. Use the ability to teach consumers about the product between order and distribution, reduce objections that lead to refunds, and keep people excited about what they have just ordered.

A Few Tips to Significantly Lower Your RTOs.

1. Quick shipping

Customers have fewer chances to look at solutions as they ship orders fast. However, faster transit times also lead to consumers changing their minds and beginning to search for alternatives or tending to make an offline buy, thereby raising the risk.

2. Good experience with post shipping

When we say post-shipment experience, it means reaching out to clients for some help or assistance until they have to reach you.

• Notifications of timely shipment such as In Transit, Packaged, Out for Delivery, etc.
• Seamless and hassle-free management of shipments.
• Alerting consumers in case of any delay or any exceptions to delivery.
• Both of these aspects help connect with the client and create trust between you and the client.

3. Blacklist consumers who have previously lowered RTOs

On your website or your service, several clients may have a poor experience, and they put several COD orders to take vengeance, and they continue to deny delivery. To stop more damages, you need to blacklist those clients.

4. Verify cash via Automatic IVR calls on delivery orders

Customers often place orders using invalid email identifiers or telephone numbers. So you need to get automatic Cash On Delivery check calls in place to stop those clients, this will decrease the fake orders considerably.

5. Incorrect pin-codes

Our old pin-code system is not very precise, and this system has no replacement.

As courier services rely a lot on pin-codes, incorrect pin-codes add to full returns. A parcel that is intended for Delhi will go to Punjab if the pin-code is not right. The explanation is evaluated at the time, and the packet is returned to the proper address where the consumer obtained the commodity from other suppliers.

Conclusion

There is no way to avoid returns from happening fully. Still, when they do, it is important to have a plan for handling returns in the most successful way possible.

As an e-commerce company owner, you will likely have to contend with a certain number of refunds, so you will greatly reduce the probability of that occurring if you take the appropriate action today.

You may consider looking at a conversion optimisation program if your organisation is struggling with a high return rate. The best approach to solving a problem like this is adaptive optimisation, particularly if you have not properly defined the root of the problem.

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FAQs

Q. What is and how does the RTO function?

Ans. It is labelled RTO when the courier agent is unable to supply the package. The order is submitted back to the seller’s warehouse as a result. This normally occurs for the following reasons:

• The consumer is not in a position to accept the kit.
• They dispute that the shipment was sent.
• The buyer’s address or other details is wrong.
• Door/premise/office locked.

Q. How can small businesses minimise COD failures and returns?

Ans. Proven Ways for the e-commerce company to reduce returns:

• Make sure that every specified product has photographs and specifications of good quality.
• Implement size guides and tools for fitting.
• Ask for suggestions from the clients, and thank them for it.
• Become a leader in exemplary customer service.
• The first time, get each order correct.