Higher e-commerce return rates are a problem for your business because returns reduce e-commerce conversion rates and decrease your profit margins. Every time a customer returns an item, you either need to resell it or mark it as a loss. Not to mention the cost of paying to have the item returned.

Plus, you run the risk of having an unhappy customer that may not choose to shop with you again. The customer already spent a lot of time opening several tabs from different stores trying to find the one product that would fit their needs, and they chose yours. Even if you offer free, easy returns, customers still have to initiate the e-commerce returns process, which can be a hassle. 

The workaround? Reducing your e-commerce return rate, which can be easier said than done. Otherwise the average return rates in e-commerce, which sit at about 20-30%, would be a lot lower than they actually are. But that’s where user-generated content (UGC), like reviews and social media posts, comes in.

Chapters:

1. What is e-commerce return rate?
2. 7 ways to reduce e-commerce returns
3. Make e-commerce returns a thing of the past with UGC

What is e-commerce return rate?

Your e-commerce return rate is the number of total products ordered from your e-commerce site that are returned back to you, either for a refund or store credit. It’s calculated as a percentage of number of e-commerce sales within a specific timeframe.

To calculate your e-commerce return rate, divide number of products returned by the number of products sold, and times the answer by 100.

Say you wanted to figure out your return rate for March 2023. During the month you sold 8,500 units, of which 900 were returned. It would be 900 divided by 8,500, then multiplied by 100 — giving you an average e-commerce return rate of 10.5%.

While it’s estimated that for every $1 billion in sales, the average retailer incurs $165 million in e-commerce returns, average return rates vary by industry.

Unsurprisingly, apparel is the highest. According to research, “item doesn’t fit fit” is one of the main reasons for e-commerce returns. The same research states the other top reasons are:

1. Item doesn’t match description
2. Don’t like the item(s)
3. Ordered multiple items/sizes

The trick here is to tap into the voice of your customer and let them do the selling for you through authentic UGC. Seeing products being used in the real world on real people ensures they better match product descriptions and customers have a better idea of whether they like an item or not. Making a more confident e-commerce purchase means less chance of a product being returned.

7 ways to reduce e-commerce returns

The bad news is that returns will always happen within e-commerce, and you can’t get rid of them entirely. But don’t despair, there’s good news too. There’s several ways to reduce your e-commerce return rate. Here’s the top seven.

1. Collect ratings and reviews 

Bazaarvoice research found that 88% of shoppers use reviews to discover and evaluate products. People rely on user-generated content like reviews to evaluate if a product/service is a good fit for them. Learning about their peers’ experiences with the product builds trust and inspires more confident purchasing decisions. And more confident purchases lead to fewer returns. 

So how do you get more reviews for your products to inspire those future shoppers?

• Ask past customers to leave them via review request emails or a customer satisfaction survey
• Run a sampling campaign and send a free product sample in exchange for an honest review
• Incentivize customers to leave feedback with a discount or voucher

According to a BrightLocal survey, 35% of consumers have left a review at least half of the times they were prompted to do so by a business. The moral of the story? It doesn’t hurt to ask. 

We have found that consumers trust the opinions of other consumers more than advertising claims

For example, in a bid to reduce return rates, clothing giant GANT implemented a UGC program to collect more customer reviews that contained product size and fit information. “We have found that consumers trust the opinions of other consumers more than advertising claims,” revealed GANT’s Head of E-Commerce. As a result, the brand was able to achieve a 5% reduction in return rates.

2. Show how your products look in real life with visual UGC 

Visual UGC sourced from social media can increase conversions by 150% and average order value by 15%. Visual UGC can be particularly impactful for apparel, home, and beauty brands because these are also the categories that have the highest e-commerce return rates. Using UGC here gets shoppers closer to seeing what these product look like in real life situations.

For example, Maybelline includes its fantastic brand imagery on its Lash Sensational Sky High mascara product detail page, but it also has galleries of visual UGC from real customers so shoppers can see how the product looks on a regular person (not a model). 

The galleries on Maybelline’s product pages are also shoppable, with tagged products in each image so customers can complete the look with other Maybelline products if they choose to.

3. Provide comprehensive size guides  

Narvar found that about 48% of customers buy multiple sizes of the same apparel item to figure out what fits at home, and then they return the rest of the order. If you’re an apparel brand looking to help your customers cut down on this, look at the sizing information on your product pages. What are you telling the customer about how the product fits?

Every person’s body is different, so offering information about how the product fits on users with similar body types is critical. 

For example, when a shopper clicks on “Size & Fit” on one of clothing brand American Eagle’s product pages, they’ll see a scale that shows how an item fits based on what other reviewers have said. 

Then, if the user scrolls down to the reviews, they’ll see more information about how all reviewers found the item’s fit. They’ll also be able to filter product reviews by size, height, and weight, so they can discover what reviewers most similar to their body type have said about the clothes. 

Another option is to harness the augmented reality marketing trend. AR is coming in to save the day and reduce global e-commerce returns. Well-known brands like ASOS and Sephora use AR tools to show how clothing looks on different body types, or how a certain shade of lipstick would look on you. All without ever having to leave the house.

4. Put the “detail” in “product detail page”

When’s the last time you reviewed your product detail pages (PDPs)? Take a look at them with your team and ask yourself, “If I knew nothing about the product, what does this page tell me?”

To reduce returns, you have to give customers a rich PDP with as much information about what they’re buying as possible. Selling clothes? Don’t just tell them what fabric the T-shirt is made of. Tell them what it feels like and what they can wear it with. 

You should also incorporate UGC into the “detail” portion of your PDPs. Reviews don’t have to live at the bottom of the page. Beauty brand Lush leverages awesome testimonials from customers and displays them higher up on product pages. 

Find reviews that tell other shoppers exactly how the product will make them feel. This is especially beneficial for beauty, apparel, or home brands because shoppers can’t see and feel the products in person.

5. Answer customer questions

So you’ve provided great sizing guides, added more detail to product pages, and have collected UGC in the form of reviews and images from customers. But what if shoppers still have questions about your product? You don’t want them leaving your site to get the answer, which is why many retailers are adding question and answer modules to their online stores.

Our own research found that brands and retailers who respond to questions onsite see a 98% average conversion lift. 

It’s pretty simple — if a shopper is unsure about a product, they likely won’t buy it. But they’ll ask the seller a question about it. Ignoring the question means the shopper either won’t purchase it, or if they do it may not be right for them. Thus, will be returned. If you do answer the question, the uncertainty is cleared up and it’s more likely to be a successful purchase, reducing your e-commerce returns rate.

Plus, you can also use questions and answers to improve product pages. If you notice the same questions coming up repeatedly, consider incorporating information that answers that question into the product description to give customers the answers they need even faster. 

6. Respond to customer reviews 

Collecting reviews isn’t enough. Your company must take an active role in review management in order to provide as much information about products to potential customers as possible before they make a purchase. This means responding to reviews, both positive and negative. Our own research tells us that 87% of customers expect brands to respond to negative reviews, and 72% expect responses to positive reviews.

For negative reviews, offer support and a solution to make it right with the customer. This will prove to the customer (and browsing shoppers) that you listen to feedback and can be trusted as a brand. Just don’t ignore them. 35% of customers say they wouldn’t keep purchasing from a brand that ignored their complaints.

For positive reviews, thank the customer first and then find a detail from their review that you can comment on to show that you read the review and take what customers say to heart. 

7. Use insights to improve products

Is there a certain product on your site that just keeps getting returned? If you have a good review collection strategy, your brand can leverage customer insights found in this UGC to figure out what customers don’t like about the product so you can improve it and reduce future returns. 

Take the fashion brand Vertbaudet as an example. The brand noticed consistent customer feedback through product reviews that one of their maternity dresses was too small.

Vertbaudet responded by improving the measurements of the maternity dress and fixed the cut, leading to a reduction in returns to their e-commerce site and an increase in profit.

Make e-commerce returns a thing of the past with UGC

UGC is a powerful tool when it comes to reducing your return rates, both e-commerce and in-store. By providing information from other customers, you’ll help shoppers buy the right product for their needs the first time, which will improve customer satisfaction and your bottom line. 

Not only that, but brands that utilize UGC in e-commerce can see a 22% increase in average order value and a 150% increase in conversion rates. Learn the different ways you can use UGC for e-commerce, from reducing return rates to boosting conversion rates, in this comprehensive guide to UGC for e-commerce.

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Fuel e-commerce growth during economic uncertainty

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In short: yes. Brand loyalty is essential if you want your brand to succeed today. Or any day. Using the latest research and Bazaarvoice data, we’ll detail how brands can grow loyalty, highlight brands with high levels of loyalty, and explain how they achieved it.

Spoiler alert: It’s because customer retention is much more valuable than finding new customers.

Chapters:

1. What is brand loyalty?
2. Types of brand loyalty
3. The importance of of brand loyalty
4. How to build brand loyalty
5. Brand loyalty examples
6. How to measure brand loyalty
7. Brand loyalty is key to long term growth

It’ll come as absolutely no surprise that e-commerce is a saturated industry. For any shopping-related search, there’s pages and pages (and pages) of search engine or social media results that follow. With all the options consumers have at their disposal, how can brands earn their loyalty?

As McKinsey & Company partner Jess Huang stated in a McKinsey interview:

“It’s not that consumers are necessarily becoming less loyal. Now it’s just so much easier to access them and so much easier for them to try something new. So brands are really trying to figure out a way to develop and maintain that relationship with the consumer.”

In a crowded playing field where shoppers are fickle — especially Gen Z — how can brands win loyalty from their customers? And why should they? In a rapidly expanding market, companies have to keep up with what drives consumers’ brand loyalty. And, in particular, the tactics that will consistently win them over.

What is brand loyalty?

Brand loyalty is when shoppers continue to make repeat purchases from a specific brand, in spite of there being similar (or cheaper) offerings on the market. It’s important for businesses because brand loyalty means higher retention rates and higher growth rates, leading to a recurring revenue stream.

Types of brand loyalty

Brand loyalty can take multiple forms. There’s customers who are loyal because of how they perceive and relate to a brand. And there’s those in it for the rewards. Both are valid and contribute to the growth of your brand.

• Community building. This is when the customer derives meaning and alignment with a brand because of a shared purpose or values. It’s how customers become psychologically attached to a brand
• Rewards programs. The more traditional brand loyalty definition associated with loyalty programs. It includes rewards in the form of customer points, perks, and discounts

The importance of brand loyalty

What’s the benefit of having loyal customers? On a personal level, it creates a sense of community. From an ROI standpoint, it increases customer retention and creates natural brand ambassadors. As a result, it ultimately boosts your bottom line.

After all, it’s easier — and much more lucrative — to sell to existing customers than new customers. According to a Semrush report, there’s a 60-70% probability of selling to a previous customer and only a 5-20% probability with a new customer. Furthermore, previous customers are 31% more likely to have higher average order values (AOV).

Another valuable outcome of loyal customers is that some become brand ambassadors — at no extra cost. Unlike influencers who require a fee or freebie, brand ambassadors do it out of sheer love for your products/brand.

So, these customers-turned-brand-ambassadors promote your brand through word of mouth and user-generated content (UGC).

How to build brand loyalty

Now that you know what drives brand loyalty, implement a strategy to strengthen your own. These are the actionable steps and qualities needed to grow brand loyalty.

Define your goals and target customers

First, decide what your end goal is for your brand loyalty strategy. What do you want to gain: loyalty program members, higher AOVs, subscribers, better product launches? All of the above? Identifying your desired outcomes will help you focus and plan your efforts.

Next, know who your target customers are so you can better serve and reach them. Your current customers are your best resource. Because not only are they your target customers, but they’ll also help inform what will attract the loyalty of new customers. As Huang points out:

“Look at your customers’ transaction-and-engagement data and understand how they’re interacting with you. Do your consumer research to learn what they want and what you can offer them before you even start thinking, ‘Well, I want my loyalty program to look like X.’”

Analyze what they like and don’t like about your brand. Review the questions they ask. Survey what needs or requests they have from your brand to illuminate opportunities for improving brand loyalty.

Align with the values of your target customers

Increasingly, consumers are looking to do business with brands they identify with. An Accenture survey of over 25,000 customers found that modern consumers, “are purposefully seeking to influence their communities and the environment” through their shopping behavior. As a result, they’re willing to switch brands and pay extra for those that take visible action for a positive societal impact. This is especially prevalent since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brands must grow with this shift if they want to compete. This means re-evaluating their approach and standards and, subsequently, their communication and operations.

According to a McKinsey study, “As many as 30 to 40 percent of consumers continue to switch brands or retailers, driven primarily by younger consumers seeking value, combined with greater emphasis on purpose-driven alignment and quality.”

Offer Membership and loyalty programs

One of the primary and most common ways to build brand loyalty is through a member-based program. These types of brand loyalty programs provide members with deals but also deeper access to your brand, a certain level of status, and exclusivity. Consumers enjoy being part of a club, and for some, the prospect of not being a member can result in fear of missing out (FOMO).

VIP tiers, loyalty programs, and clubs are all ways brands can offer membership to their customers. Credit card companies and airlines are examples of brands that have mastered VIP tiers. With each membership level, customers achieve more perks, like bypassing lines, fee waivers, and upgrades.

• Clubs are ways for companies to offer customers who are interested in particular products more of what they love. And they can do so on a consistent basis. For example, wine shops that offer a monthly wine club. Or, perhaps the biggest club in the game — Amazon Prime. Club membership can include perks like free shipping, discounts on future purchases, exclusive access to sales and additional features, etc

• Loyalty programs are rewards-based, where customers earn points with every purchase, like a digital punch card. Think Sephora’s Beauty Insider program. This is a popular choice because it’s easy to execute for brands. Also there’s no additional financial investment or risk for the customer

For more revenue and customer loyalty opportunities, brands should consider adding tiers to their loyalty program.

Provide a high-quality shopping experience

The high expectations that consumers have for the physical shopping experience are just as important for e-commerce brands. The speed, usability, and presentation that shoppers are met with on an e-commerce site all matter. Especially for first-time and repeat buyers.

Exceptional customer service is also one of the leading drivers of brand loyalty. Quick response times, empathy, and a solutions-oriented approach are among the customer service elements shoppers expect. Bazaarvoice’s Questions & Answers tools provide a streamlined portal for easily and efficiently answering customer queries. As well as increasing conversions by as much as 98%.

We’re living in an age of digital immediacy. These days, 47% of customers expect websites to load in two seconds or less. Website speed directly affects the shopping experience, from the home page to product and checkout pages. As for Gen Z, this particular customer segment has a low tolerance for slow or poorly functioning websites. 

Promote affordability with discounts and deals

Savings continue to be a top motivator of brand loyalty for consumers. According to a GWI research report, almost four in 10 shoppers actively seek discounts and offers, and about three in 10 buy lower-priced products more frequently.

Promo codes, email subscriber-exclusive offers, loyalty and membership program discounts, flash sales, a diverse product portfolio. Just some of the tactics for offering discounts and value items to customers.

Be strategic about offering discounts so that it doesn’t compromise your bottom line. Offer discounts on slow-moving items, during downtimes, for an exchange like a newsletter sign-up. Or increase conversions with free shipping, for example.

Leverage user-generated content (UGC)

In a competitive, fast-paced online marketplace, the focus should be on the customer. You need to provide the best service, value, and experience for them. UGC puts the customer at the forefront with marketing that shoppers trust, as opposed to only promotional content from the brand.

Reviews and visual UGC are very influential for shoppers. Product reviews can increase conversions by 74%, making product pages the prime location to showcase UGC. As demonstrated below:

Bazaarvoice’s reviews and gallery tools help brands acquire and display UGC across their product pages and websites. This way, shoppers can see the social proof and realistic representation of products that UGC offers.

But it doesn’t stop at product pages. Social media is another extremely effective platform for sharing UGC. In fact, UGC from social media highly impacts the purchasing decisions of nearly 80% of shoppers. Social media enables brands to engage directly with their audience. UGC makes that connection even stronger, fostering brand loyalty in the process. When customers post authentic UGC of your products, that presents the perfect opportunity to engage with, and repost, their content.

Bazaarvoice customer Parachute perfectly demonstrates how to showcase visual UGC on product pages. Simply with a link to see more on their Instagram Shop.

Consider an Augmented Reality feature

If it makes sense for your brand, augmented reality (AR) is the one. It’s e-commerce’s new solution to shopping for products you can’t physically test or try on. According to GWI, online shoppers’ interest in AR is high. Especially so in the automotive, fashion, home decor, and electronics categories. Particular interest in these categories stems from consumers’ preference for experiencing high-priced and aesthetic products before making an investment.

AR takes the interactive experience to the next level. The beauty industry has already made good use of this trend. MAC’s YouCam makeup simulator resulted in a triple increase in engagement for the brand over a two-month period. And similarly, consumer engagement from the introduction of Estee Lauder’s virtual lipstick try-on feature increased by 133%. AR is nearing mainstream adoption if Shopify’s YouCam Makeup app is any indication. Brands that implement this innovative tech early will be leaders of this growing trend.

Brands that offer an AR feature present another opportunity for their customers to interact with them. At the same time, they create an enhanced and elevated shopping experience that adds value by solving a specific need.

Conduct predictive analysis

Predictive analysis is particularly helpful for designing your loyalty program. It’s the practice of analyzing consumer behavior to project future interests and purchasing decisions. This strategy can help guide consumers to products of potential interest based on their purchase history. In turn ensuring the loyalty program is mutually beneficial. As Huang goes on to say:

More companies are trying to identify specific things that they want to do through their loyalty program by understanding the analytics. Which is really important, so that they don’t give too much away to the consumer.

Predictive analysis can also determine the best timing for certain promotions. How? By looking at time periods with high engagement and sales spikes.

Encourage subscriptions

Subscriptions inherently guarantee brand loyalty, as long as they’re executed well. By signing up for a subscription, the subscriber is willingly agreeing to make repeat purchases on a regular basis. To make this kind of commitment, the subscription must be something they already enjoy, or it solves a pain point. Some brands offer subscriptions as an additional service line. For others, like HelloFresh and BarkBox, it’s their entire business model.

The subscription model is booming. From 2012 to 2018, subscription businesses grew more than 300%, approximately five times faster than S&P 500 companies’ revenues. Since then, the pandemic accelerated the subscription economy, and its revenue is projected to more than double by 2025.

The key to a successful subscription strategy is to deliver an unmet need. That can be having products consumers love delivered to their doorstep every month. Or it’s full access to publications like The New York Times. Best practices for a sustainable, successful subscription program include excellent customer service and providing value, convenience, variety, and flexible pricing.

Use a sampling strategy

One sure-fire way to get the attention of customers is to send samples to them directly. This can apply to product launches or hero products that might need a market refresh. People love free products and delight in receiving a delivery. 

On this note, we recently surveyed 6,000 Influenster members who had recently participated in a sampling campaign. Of those we asked:

• 53% said the product became a staple for them
• 49% followed the brand on social
• 95% wrote a review about the sampled product
• 88% recommended it to family and friends 

For each target customer, sampling led to several successful key brand loyalty metrics.

Brand loyalty examples

Learn from the pros. These top brands show how to expertly generate high brand loyalty from their customers.

Adidas Creators Club

The Adidas Creators Club is a membership-based rewards program. It’s a genius model that rewards customers for engaging with their brand. Members earn points by creating an account, completing their profile, reviewing products, and participating in Adidas training sessions and events. As members earn more points, they are eligible to advance to the next club tier.

The four Creator Club tiers come with their own collection of perks. They include exclusive rewards and the chance to partner with Adidas to give back to causes. Aka, combining multiple brand loyalty motivations into one program.

Microsoft Rewards

Microsoft Rewards is cleverly crafted to drive engagement and purchases toward focus products. For example, members earn points by using Bing, Edge, and Windows 10 for their online searches and activity. Like Adidas, their rewards program includes automatic donations to selected causes with acquired points. And, as with credit cards, members can earn one point for each dollar spent on Microsoft products.

Microsoft Rewards also features daily gamified challenges for extra chances to earn points. Points can be redeemed for gift cards, sweepstakes entries, nonprofit donations, and more.

Home Depot Canada’s Seed Sampling

Bazaarvoice customer Home Depot Canada gets it. The brand is a prime example of how to strategically make a sampling program that hits the trifecta:

Partnering with Bazaarvoice, Home Depot Canada launched a Managed Sampling campaign for their most loyal customers to generate buzz around their high-priority items.

This tactic produced enthusiastic reviews from the target customers. But more importantly, it doubled conversions for products in the seed campaign. This resulted in successful product launches for Home Depot Canada vendors.

BEKO

Beko is an appliance and consumer electronics brand that relied on UGC for a successful expansion into the Australian market. Working with Bazaarvoice, Beko accumulated over 8,000 customer reviews and syndicated them on their retail partners’ websites, which increased their exposure to their target market, strengthened their retail partnerships, and converted new brand advocates.

Petco

Petco focuses on building trust with its customers to increase brand loyalty. With its partnership with Bazaarvoice, Petco accrued 80% of their 1.5 million reviews through syndication. This large volume of UGC inspires confident purchases in other shoppers. Beyond reviews, Petco recognizes its responsibility as a supplier to pet parents who care deeply about their pets’ health and happiness. In addition to selling quality products to pet owners, they’ve become a trusted resource through Bazaarvoice’s Questions & Answers tool.

With Bazaarvoice Connections, Petco can team up with their vendors to efficiently and effectively answer any customer questions or concerns. This allows them to connect with customers and gain valuable product feedback.

For further reading, a few more brand loyalty success stories can be found here!

How to measure brand loyalty

With the many tactics to build brand loyalty comes multiple ways to track it:

Customer satisfaction surveys. Want to know the level of loyalty your customers have for your brand? Ask them. Luckily for you, we just produced a guide on how to do exactly that!

Engagement. Website visits, customer reviews, social media followers, social media interactions. All are indicators of how invested your customers are in your brand.

Track repurchasing behavior. Use your customer and inventory management insights to track repeat purchases. The number of customers who continue to buy from your brand will tell you how high your brand loyalty is.

Number of loyalty and rewards program members. Track how many people are enrolled in your membership, club, or loyalty program and the trends over time. Determine what could be attributed to the rise or fall in members to identify areas of opportunity and improvement.

Number of subscribers. If your brand offers a subscription, or is subscription-based, how many subscribers you have is a key indicator of brand loyalty. If you’re not consistently gaining subscribers, you should reevaluate your subscription’s price point, variety, and value to the consumer.

Brand loyalty is the key to long-term growth

Clearly, building brand loyalty requires a multi-faceted, holistic approach. It’s not one simple step but many to achieve a high level of brand loyalty. But once you get it, you’ll have returning customers who make repeat, and often larger, purchases.

According to Accenture’s study, the majority of consumers are willing to pay more to brands that meet all their needs. And according to a McKinsey survey on loyalty, 62% of members in a paid loyalty program are likely to spend more with that brand. That amounts to increased revenue over an extended period of time. Something every brand wants!

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Masterclass: How to maintain brand loyalty in a tough economy

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That was further amplified this year, since more people are shopping online. But, all these returns can offer a wealth of insights for brands, helping you improve your products and learn more about your customers.  

E-commerce holiday sales were projected to jump 40% in 2020 to $234.9 billion, and about $70.5 billion in purchases were expected to be returned, according to a CBRE report. Overall, holiday returns were estimated to be 73% higher this year than the average over the past few years. 

Still, return policies are an important consideration for shoppers. According to PwC, 53% of consumers base their buying decisions on return politics. Millennials are especially keen on generous and flexible return policies, and 40% (compared to 20% for all consumers) planned to return more items this year compared to last. 

4 ways to reduce holiday returns

Though returns can be costly for brands and retailers, they also present a learning opportunity. Here’s four insights you can take away from your holiday returns to reduce e-commerce return rates. 

1. Identify trends in your holiday returns 

The first step in reducing returns is to understand which products consumers are returning most and why. Some questions you need to answer include:

• Are shoppers returning a certain brand more than others?
• Is size the most common reason for online apparel returns or is it quality?
• Are product descriptions accurate? 

To find out, make sure your return processes ask consumers direct questions. Let them select a specific reason for the return, such as “too big,” “size,” or, “quality not expected,” to gather returns data. Scan review comments for common keywords, as well. 

This valuable customer feedback and the data you pull from it can inform future product launches or improve existing products. Shopper data helps brands and retailers make better decisions about inventory and sales projections, too. It also gives you a glimpse into your customer and their preferences, information you can use to create targeted, personalized marketing campaigns. 

2. Optimize your product pages based on the trends you’ve identified 

Having to return a purchase is a consumer’s least favorite part of shopping online, and 39% say they’ve never purchased from a retailer again after a disappointing purchase. Complicated return processes are even more frustrating. For example, many consumers aren’t able to print out return shipping labels at home. 

Head this off by updating and improving your product description pages. Use the insights and user-generated content (UGC) gathered from analyzing your holiday returns trends to add extra information and more accurate details. 

Returns data often mentions that apparel sizing is off or the color doesn’t match up with the product photo, for example. Including those details in the product description helps other shoppers make better decisions and could cut down on online apparel return rates. 

3. Audit your products with UGC 

When product descriptions contain UGC, like reviews, ratings, photos, and questions, it inspires brand loyalty, enhances customer service, and reduces e-commerce return rates. UGC also provides the social proof shoppers need to feel confident making a purchase. When shoppers are more confident knowing how a product looks up front, holiday returns are less likely.

Products without UGC tend to have higher returns rates. So, it’s a good idea to identify these items and create a campaign to increase review volume. Send emails to the consumers who’ve purchased the product asking for a review — in exchange, offer them an incentive, such as a coupon or freebie. Product sampling is another proven way to encourage reviews and build UGC quickly. 

Clothing giant GANT for example wanted to reduce return rated (both holiday and year-round) so the brand worked with Bazaarvoice to increase the number of customer reviews on an item’s fit and size. The brand also added the ability to ask questions and comment on reviews. These product reviews led to a 5% reduction in return rates.

We have found that customers trust the opinions of other customers more than advertising claims

Head of E-Commerce, GANT

4. Segment your shoppers 

Reviewing purchase and returns data also helps segment shoppers, enabling you to discover their individual needs, shopping habits, and preferences. When you better understand what your customers want and why they’re making returns, it’s an opportunity to build relationships and retain customers.

Segmenting customers guides targeted marketing messages, helping you identify the best ways to communicate with shoppers and recommend new products. You’ll be able to send the right message to the right customer at the right time. Consumers appreciate high levels of personalization, and reward brands who take the time to get to know them with repeat business. 

Reduce holiday returns, increase profit

Holiday returns may be a given, but don’t just take it as a regular seasonal occurrence. It’s an opportunity to learn. These returns contain a wealth of insights that can help you learn more about your customers and how they shop, as well as which products need improvement. The more you learn, the less your customers will have to return. Rhyme intentional.

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Strategic holiday retail timeline

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This blog post is part of a series on picking a trustworthy ratings and reviews provider. Read more about the importance of authenticity in the selection process here.

We have worked hard since our inception to ensure that we have the best-in-class security in place in order to protect ourselves, our clients, and their consumers from cyber attacks. As part of our trust and privacy blog series, we interviewed Anji Greene, our Director of Security and Privacy. Here’s what she had to say: 

Can you talk through Bazaarvoice’s security processes?

“We see security and privacy as an ongoing journey. We are continually striving to improve our software development processes and internal infrastructure controls so that our products and services exceed our customer’s security and privacy expectations.

Bazaarvoice systems and services are hosted in the cloud.  We control access to our cloud environments through the use of virtual private cloud (VPC) routing, firewall rules, and role-based access controls. Our privileged users require multi-factor authentication and proxies for direct system access.   

During the product planning and throughout the software development lifecycle, security and privacy architecture is being reviewed.  We use threat modeling to understand the specific security and privacy risks associated with a product or feature. Generally speaking, threat modeling is a brainstorming session between security, privacy, engineering, and the product manager of an application or service. Understanding the threat landscape helps to identify the security controls needed during development and testing.

Our engineers go through security awareness and secure coding training and we have regular brown bag sessions to help teach engineers on best practices such as Infrastructure as Code,  patch management, privacy by design, and applying proper network access controls to your services.“

What specific policies does Bazaarvoice have surrounding security, protecting consumer privacy?

“Our team is focused on ensuring that the services we provide for our clients support full transparency to the consumer.  If we need to collect personal information, the consumer is made aware and has the ability to opt out. We offer privacy tools that are available for our clients to support privacy requests from their consumers. For example, if a client has 50 requests from consumers to remove personal information from their systems, the client can securely leverage the Bazaarvoice Privacy API to automate those requests and remove the personal information from all of our systems as well.

We’re currently in the process of aligning all of our security and privacy policies and procedures to the ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 framework.  The ISO implementation project has given us an opportunity to take a fresh look at existing processes, improve and simplify where needed, and really improve security and privacy awareness throughout the organization. Achieving this certification is a common request from our clients. ISO 27001 is one way that Bazaarvoice can demonstrate to our clients that we are following information security and privacy best practices.”

How do we help our clients if they experience a security breach?

“As a provider, Bazaarvoice collects user-generated content on brands and retailers websites. In the event that our clients experience a security breach related to these services, there are a couple of scenarios where Bazaarvoice can help.

Our web services (API and Display) are protected by a web application firewall (WAF). A WAF analyzes incoming application requests and blocks attacks from bots or other threats.   Since Bazaarvoice services are running on our client’s website, that protection is available to our client’s on the content that Bazaarvoice displays and collects. Those logs can be made available to clients as well if needed.

Another scenario that comes to mind is a form of Denial-of-Service protection. A pattern that we have seen before where an attacker attempts to overflow client submission forms through reviews, comments, or any type of content. Bazaarvoice has various layers of control to thwart these DOS attempts on our submission services such as fraud detection, rate limiting, and WAF protection. When our controls identify these malicious attacks, it is often necessary to work directly with the client throughout the incident.”

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