Returns have always been a challenge, but today distributors are finding a surge in returned items and orders. While it’s easy to pass off returns as primarily an e-commerce or retail issue, the fact is it’s a challenge all distributors face because of the costs associated with it.
You are doing what with your returns?
What’s a distributor to do? Without a proper receiving process in place, returns and inbound items may get mixed up and processed similarly. Then salespeople must spend hours locating returned products: Are they on the shelf? Still in the returns pile? Already been resold? If your workers don’t have visibility into the location and status of returns, you’re wasting valuable time and energy that would be better spent filling other orders.
You can take some simple steps in the warehouse to streamline the returns process. A full-featured warehouse management system (Global Warehouse Solutions), for example, can make it faster and easier to identify and track returned items.
Here’s how Global Warehouse Solutions can improve (and reduce) your returns process:
- Sorry, wrong item. When you utilize Global Warehouse Solutions to fulfill customer orders, you not only want to fill orders faster, but you also want to drastically reduce the number of errors. While errors are an inevitable part of warehouse order fulfillment, easy-to-use software encourages employees to do their jobs better, meaning efficiency improves and mistakes decrease considerably.
Few mistakes mean fewer customer complaints.
- Damaged goods. Whether the item was defective and slipped through quality control or damaged during delivery, someone needs to fix it without taking time away from their normal duties.
Using reason codes, Global Warehouse Solutions can identify trends such as defective products or frequently returned items. Helping you to avoid returns in the future.
- Too little, too late. Global Warehouse Solutions with parcel shipping integration software simplifies warehouse shipping, package tracking, and route management to get products to customers quickly, securely, and affordably.
Hopefully, this will help you to streamline your returns process in the future.
