This guide was written for Returnly Systems Inc. All rights reserved.
Check out the first-ever consumer-centric returns report. Unlike other return reports that analyze logistics data, the Returnly 2020 State of Returns Report includes findings from our year-long look at consumer returns behavior.
Originally published on the Returnly blog. All rights reserved.
My role: Copywriter and Content Strategist
Let’s face it, most of us have certain expectations when it comes to shopping online. We want easy-to-navigate, engaging, and transparent experiences. From browsing inventory, customizing orders, and understanding pricing to selecting payment and shipping options at checkout, we expect the end-to-end shopping experience to be seamless. And when it comes to exchanges and returns, we’re no different; clear policies and simplified procedures earn our repeat business—and boost loyalty.
How important is the returns process for today’s online buyers? According to recent studies, it’s critical. Providing a simple, friction-free return experience for shoppers could mean the difference between closing a sale and the dreaded abandoned cart. A recent Baymard Institute study found that 11 percent of shoppers have abandoned at least one order in the past quarter due to unsatisfactory returns policy. And, after the cost of shipping and delivery speed, a Pitney Bowes Global Ecommerce Study shows that a complex returns process is one of the top five reasons for cart abandonment by global shoppers! For online retailers looking to expand their customer base across borders, this is especially concerning.
Imagine for a moment that you’re from Madrid visiting San Francisco over your summer vacation. One day, while exploring Noe Valley, you stumble across a store that sells unique handmade shoes—but you don’t have enough time to shop. Luckily, they have an online store and ship to Spain. Perfect! After your three pairs of shoes arrive, you discover that they don’t fit and need to exchange them for another size. Sounds straightforward, right? Not quite.
The process starts with a call to customer service (which due to time differences is inconvenient). Then, via email, you’re sent instructions for returning your shoes. Step by step you do as instructed. Unfortunately, in preparing your return, you run into language barriers, confusing customs forms, border restrictions, currency issues, and unanticipated costs. By the time you’ve shipped your shoes, you’re beyond frustrated and have lost confidence in the brand you were so enamored with just a short time ago. What you thought would be a simple return, turned into a difficult, time-consuming, and slow exercise of jumping through hoops. By the time you’re done, you don’t want to follow through with an exchange. You just want your money back from the San Francisco-based retailer—and have decided you won’t be buying from them again (at least online) in the future.
Sadly, complicated international returns don’t only affect shoppers—they prove to be a major pain point for businesses looking to expand their ecommerce businesses internationally.
At Returnly, we’re all about finding new ways to help retailers and brands deliver frictionless returns. Committed to helping our customers expand into international markets and unlock their growth potential, we’re tackling the challenges associated with cross-border returns head-on with our newest solution, Returnly International.
Explains Eduardo Vilar, Returnly founder and CEO, “Our international returns solution is designed to make online shopping easier than ever for today’s global consumer. With a simple, fast and reliable returns process, we’re giving consumers the confidence to buy, while removing one of the biggest obstacles of global ecommerce growth for U.S. and Canadian online retailers ahead of the holiday season.”
For retailers’ shoppers, International Returns simplifies returns across borders by offering:
For the retailer, Returnly’s International Returns solution not only streamlines the international workflow processes, it also provides a complete and comprehensive view into returns operations which translates into:
With shopping cart abandonment rates as high as 69.57% online retailers will need to do everything they can to meet (if not exceed) modern shopper expectations. And while Returnly’s post-purchase payments technology can’t help retailers ensure the perfect fit for every pair of shoes sold internationally, our solutions can help save sales, encourage future repurchases, and increase customer loyalty when they need to be exchanged or returned.
My Role: Ghost Writer and Client-Side Editor
While leading content marketing at Returnly, I worked to help boost our executives’ digital media presence and reinforce their positions as thought leaders in the e-commerce returns space. Here are a few of the bylines I helped develop.
4 ways to take the headache and hassle out of annoying holiday returns: Retail Report
Four Strategies Digitally Native Brands Can Use to Outsmart Amazon
This article was written for Returnly Systems Inc. and published on their website.
My Role: Copywriter and Content Marketing Lead
As part of the ongoing series, Retail Transformed, Bloomberg Technology host Taylor Riggs, sat down with Returnly CEO, Eduardo Vilar, to discuss how tech can help with the returns process. During the interview, Eduardo discusses the health of e-commerce, what’s “broken” with traditional returns processes, and the expectations of today’s “now customer”. He also explains how Returnly is fixing returns with Returnly Credit, allowing consumers to shop again at the point of return — so they can get the right item, before returning the wrong one.
Watch Taylor’s full interview with Eduardo below to hear how direct-to-consumer (DTC) technologies like Returnly, Shopify, Shopify Plus, Affirm, and Klaviyo are helping online retailers create shopping experiences on par with e-commerce giants like Amazon and Walmart.
In the on-demand recording of Killing it Without Amazon, you’ll learn what DTC retailers are doing to compete with Amazon, drive growth, and increase Customer Lifetime Value. Leading e-commerce strategists from ShipBob, LoyaltyLion, Packlane, and Returnly discuss fulfillment, returns, customer retention, and packaging tactics brands can start using now to increase customer satisfaction and boost sales.
Topics covered in this webinar include:
My Role: Content Strategist and Copywriter
In 2018, while working as a copywriter for the Digital Customer Success team at Autodesk, in response to a call-to-action from our CMO (Lisa Campbell) to modernize our approach to marketing, I pitched a concept to my team — and the title slide of the deck read:
Autoflip:
A reimagined subscriber nurture experience
By the time my deck was socialized with Director-level leadership, my Executive Summary (which really became the team’s asset) slide read:
Ultimately, my “Autoflip” concept never gained traction due to cost — and I left Autodesk to expand my content strategy and content marketing experience in the startup world. In early 2021 I was contacted by my former manager and team members — “Autoflip was greenlighted!” I was invited to help manage bring my old (and now evolved) vision to life.
The concept “Autoflip” ultimately launched as:
Content Connection
Resources curated by experts. Experiences designed for you.
In addition to pitching the tag line (now live), my content strategy contribution helped define the UX, UI copy, back-end workflows, and the taxonomy used to power search.
Currently, the site support 7 industries, over 14 core Autodesk products — and has been produced in 6 languages. As of January 2022, a two months after launch, the English site has over 60K visitors with close to 200K page views (average time on page = 2 minutes.)
Originally written for Returnly Systems Inc. and published on their blog. All rights reserved.
My Role: Copywriter and Content Strategist
O.k., I admit it—when it comes to holiday shopping, I’m the worst. While I do love giving gifts, making thoughtful, well-planned purchasing decisions is just not my thing. Sadly, what I am exceptionally skilled at—where my holiday retail “superpowers” shine through—is being able to secure one random purchase after another with impressive speed on last-minute whirlwind shopping sprees. Luckily, I have one safeguard that brings a sense of peace to my “process”. Whether purchased online or in a storefront, I don’t buy something unless I know it can be returned or exchanged.
My chaotic approach to holiday shopping is not the norm for a majority of today’s holiday shoppers (and for sanity’s sake, something I don’t advise). According to the National Retail Federation (NRF) survey, “39 percent of holiday shoppers said they would start buying holiday items before November, while 43 percent are waiting until at least November, and 18 percent are waiting until December.”
Where I am aligned with most of today’s shoppers is that I buy with returns (or the ability to return) in mind. Data published in a Shopify Plus article by Aaron Orendorff shows that 41% of shoppers “buy variations of a product with the intent of returning.” And this consumer trend looks like it will translate into a staggering number of returns this holiday season.
Case in point: UPS. Per GlobeNewswire, they’re anticipating a record-breaking holiday returns volume this year with customers due to ship:
Between the uptick in shoppers using returns as part of their buying process and an NRF forecast predicting a significant increase in online and non-store sales, it’s safe to say that ecommerce retailers need to be prepared to handle more holiday returns than ever before.
If you’re running an ecommerce operation, returns are a fact of life you’ll have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. If you’re unprepared to handle them—especially during your busiest times of year—they can become a nightmare; impacting profit margins, conversion rates, and your brand’s reputation.
The good news: Returns don’t have to wreak havoc on your business! If you have the right policies and practices in place, there are great opportunities to build shopper loyalty and see profits grow.
In the on-demand webinar How to Prepare Your Online Store for Holiday Returns and Drive Revenue, Jon Feldman, Head of Partnerships at Returnly, shares seven tips that can help you save time, improve customer experience, and boost revenue with product returns this holiday season.
My Role: Copywriter and Content Strategist
Transform a lackluster customer onboarding experience into an engaging introduction to the Autodesk ecosystem of resources and tools — while reinforcing the brand promise to help the customer “do more” with Autodesk solutions.
Create persona-based multi-touch nurture campaign to acquaint software administrators and/or end users with a holistic overview of the role/industry-specific need-to-know programs, resources, and tools.
This article was written for Inkling and published on their website. All rights reserved.
My Role: Copywriter
Elevators, escalators, and moving walkways—what would we do without them? Get to the 20th floor in seconds without breaking a sweat. Done. Make a connecting flight a half mile away while hauling that oversized carryon. Not a problem. Safely descend below the city’s surface to catch the last train home after the office happy hour. Phew. Bottom line, while they do nothing to help us reach our daily step count goals, these modern-day people movers do make life more comfortable, safe, and convenient in millions of locations across the globe.
Say hello to Schindler Group. Founded in 1874 in Lucerne, Switzerland, Schindler manufactures, installs, services, and modernizes elevators, escalators, and moving walkways for every type of building requirement worldwide. An industry leader employing over 64,000 employees, Schindler moves over a billion people per day, 7 days a week. And with growth drivers that include ongoing urbanization, demographic change, demand for modernization, and the need for better energy efficiency, Schindler’s product portfolio is set up to provide optimal mobility solutions now and into the future.
Hear Mark Early, Training Manager at Schindler talk about onboarding, empowering, and retaining a global workforce one-on-one with Inkling CEO, Jeff Carr. During this webinar, you’ll learn how:
Gain access to this On-Demand Webinar with Schindler Elevators now!
This article was written for Inkling and published on their website. All rights reserved.
My Role: Copywriter and Content Strategist
I’ve always been a late adopter of most things designed to simplify life, which makes embracing the latest technologies particularly hard for me. I mean, why microwave popcorn when I can vigorously move the Jiffy Pop container in a circular motion over the open flame of my stove top? And why should I subscribe to a streaming music service when my record player still cranks out tunes for free?
Yes, my struggle to embrace change is real, but the desire for increased efficiency and simplicity inevitably pushes me to adopt new ways of doing things. And while I may struggle on some level with new technologies (the verdict is still very much out on self-driving or driverless cars, thank you very much), I happily identify as a modern learner.
When I need to know something to do my job or solve an everyday problem, I must find answers within minutes, if not seconds, and the information I need must be available in different formats across multiple devices. For better or worse, I set the instant-gratification bar high when it comes to accessing and using information to perform my job.
Like me, the majority of today’s learners expect more. At work, we want quick access to the mission-critical training and information needed to do our jobs well. We strive for everyday successes. From at-your-fingertip search capabilities and on-demand tutorials, to more traditional lesson-based structured learning, the learning experiences must be flexible, personalized, intuitive, engaging, and modern.
The shift in learner expectations—and the subsequent effort to provide modern solutions that meet employees where they are—is disrupting the learning and development market now more than ever before. In the training delivery sector of this evolving space, tremendous innovation is taking place, and leaders are getting noticed. So, what does it take to be recognized as a leader?
For the third year in a row, Training Industry, Inc. has published its list of Top Training Delivery Companies. As a leading research and information resource for corporate learning leaders, Training Industry helps organizations in their search for training delivery platforms.
“This year’s Top 20 Training Delivery Companies continue to develop engaging delivery platforms that provide advanced reporting and analytics capabilities that measure the impact of learning,” said Ken Taylor, president of Training Industry, Inc. “Through a combination of strategic methods, these providers deliver training solutions that optimize employee training and performance.”
To compile this year’s list of top training delivery companies, Training Industry evaluated the following criteria:
As announced yesterday, Inkling is proud to be included on Training Industry’s 2019 list. Danielle Draewell, market research analyst at Training Industry, stated, “Inkling is revolutionizing the learning experience by integrating world-class content authoring tools with a personalized user experience.”
As someone who works cross-functionally at Inkling, I can say unequivocally that it’s a very exciting time to be a part of such an innovative organization. From product design and engineering to customer success, sales, and beyond, teams across Inkling are passionate about our work because we allow modern learners to tap into critical knowledge in their moment of need quickly and easily.
And when you couple this excitement and passion with Inkling’s easy-to-use content authoring tools, intuitive user experience, personalized learning options, and analytics capabilities, one can’t help but wonder what the future holds for learners in the years to come!
