Return Policies Are Key In Return Business

A study just published this past April showed that a super strict return policy where the staff said “no receipt-no refund”, actually resulted in lost revenue.  It was a significant loss of over 8%.  The stores that had a more relaxed policy kept their sales at pace and did not experience any rise in number of refunds processed. The stores that stayed business as usual did not really have any changes in number of returns or sales levels. This is eye opening for sure, since many small business owners and managers are under the assumption that if they do not accept returns their sales are sure to be above budget.  The problem is that people do lose receipts, and customer service is what brings back loyal shoppers.  Our store certainly cannot afford to lose 8% of our sales, so we utilize a simple solution to help deter shoplifter/returners, and that is Checkpoint Labels.

The big box store down the street from us has the reputation that they will accept just about any returned item, with or without a receipt, as long as it rings up in their system.  That has been a huge frustration for the rest of us in the surrounding area.  Our store has a pretty standard return policy.  If the customer has a receipt, then we take care of their returns with no questions asked.  If they do not have a receipt it can get a little tricky.  Those are done strictly at the manager’s discretion. Checkpoint Labels have made a big dent in some of the attempts that we know are fraudulent.

We have the occasional knucklehead that tries to return high retail merchandise without proof of purchase.   Sometimes I think they work at competitors and are actually stealing these items from them, instead of us, since it’s mainly OTC items like high retail CoQ10 vitamins.  But I do not want to encourage them to continue, so we have had to get more creative in protecting some of these more targeted items.   We have adhered Checkpoint Labels to all of the strengths of this particular item, and without it still attached, we will deny any refunds for them.   They actually have our store location printed on them, so we are easily able to determine whether or not they did come from our store.  We also sell salon brand hair care items, and these are actually source tagged by the vendor.  It’s even better that our store location number is pre-printed on the label as well.  Without that still attached and legible, we have the ammunition we need to prove or disprove the person’s story of where they bought the item.  We never want to just say no across the board to all refunds and returns without receipts.  We also never want to use any bias or discrimination in our decisions.  We have Checkpoint Labels  and we have common sense.  No normal person purchases five packs of lithium camera batteries and then gets home to discover they were the wrong one!

For more information contact us at Anti Shoplifting or call 1.770.426.0547