Building a clientele is tough. It requires understanding who the customer is, what their tastes are and how to serve them: a simple plan, but not easy to execute. A retailer needs inventory tools that luckily, omnichannel POS and retail management platform Retail Pro Prism provides, to efficiently accomplish this feat.

Sometimes, customers aren’t sure of what they want, and when they guess incorrectly, the dreaded return process begins.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused many retailers to institute extended return periods that go beyond the traditional 30-day window. And, with many brick and mortar stores operating at reduced schedules, many shoppers turned toward ecommerce for everything from toilet paper to jigsaw puzzles to exercise clothing.

But with that change came an increase in returns, particularly with clothing, because online shoppers can’t be certain of fit and quality.

Making it easy for customers to not only find products but to also make returns if necessary, creates a frictionless experience that shoppers are comfortable repeating. An easy return process for customers doesn’t mean the same for retailers.

With Retail Pro Prism, e-Commerce and POS at every location can be seamlessly integrated to the Retail Pro platform so they can share transactional data in real time (or whatever interval is optimal for your operations) with the inventory management tools in Retail Pro.

Providing ease-of-doing-business is a way to improve loyalty, because customers can purchase knowing the return process will be hassle free.

Retailer’s Challenges in Simplifying Returns

Creating a smooth, simple customer experience is, ironically, somewhat complicated.

The omnichannel shopper’s journey starts with the product research phase either online or, for those wanting a tangible experience, in-store.

The item might be purchased at that time or later, through the same – or different – channel. Finally, the product fulfillment phase includes several options: in-store pickup, home delivery shipped from the online or physical store or from the warehouse; a drop shipment directly from the vendor; or ship to store from the warehouse or another store.

Those logistics are transparent to the customer who, in most case, wants the product immediately or within a day or two. And then, sometimes, the product just isn’t right, and a return is initiated.

While inventory visibility is often thought of as useful for marketing products and pre-sales activities, it can be helpful for “smart returns.”

Returns and Inventory Visibility

Visibility can help managers at physical locations “see” where products are, and move them between stores according to customer demand.

In a return scenario, a retailer has a connected network of inventory visibility, and an understanding of predicted demand. When customers initiate returns, a shipping label is generated but instead of the shipment getting sent back to a warehouse, it is shipped to a retail location where there is demand for the product.

Accurate stock counts make the most efficient use of existing inventory and provide valuable insight about trending products. Technology such as RFID helps retailers quickly and affordably track inventory, and avoid human errors that occur with manual counting processes.

Inventory disparities can cost retailers money in lost sales or the added expense of keeping too much inventory in stock. Unified data processes are critical for proper order management, fulfillment and restocking of returned items.

Retail Pro has partnered with RIOT to offer easy integration at an affordable price, which hasn’t been attainable in the past. Among its many benefits, with RIOT for Retail Pro you can increase stock accuracy to 98%+ to better support online sales and pickup in store, and reduce stock management labor costs associated with restocking, receiving, etc.

Optimizing the omnichannel experience in your stores? Let’s talk.

Request a consultation with an Authorized Retail Pro Business Partner in your region or watch a brief demo of Retail Pro Prism today to see how you can transform the luxury experience in-store with omnichannel operations built on with Retail Pro Prism.

Read this article and more on the RPI blog.