How are you handling returns?

You may think your business is geared up for business to consumer order processing and the subsequent returns process, however when a consumer orders multiple sizes your warehouse stock is three garments down with the anticipation that two of these will be returned – but which two?  

According to research by Intermec, the average cost of a return is at least £14. This is a significant overhead and it has a direct impact on the profitability of the business. Note that the £14 figure is an average cost due to a warehouse operator mispicking but what if this mispicking is forced on the business (on top of the cost of returns) due to multiple size ordering by a customer? It gets messy and costly, not to mention the impact this has on customer satisfaction. This is where Indigo WMS comes in.

Indigo WMS aids the picking and returns process and eases the flow of stock through the business when garments are returned. For example, barcodes can be printed onto the despatch document so that, in the event of a customer returning the goods, the barcode will be scanned, identified and subsequently returned into the inventory stock much faster and slicker than could otherwise be expected if a manual system were in use.

Items of stock that have been returned as part of the sales process are, by definition, the oldest stock of that Item and therefore should be routed to the picking face as quickly as possible. With Indigo WMS this can be achieved by creating case or garment rules that route the returned stock directly to the pick face, space permitting of course.

The prognosis where no WMS is used is one of misery and cost anarchy. Indigo WMS provides the conduit between product receipt and the sales order process. Otherwise, the delays in processing both sales orders and returned goods have an additional and substantial negative impact on the business.

There are many opportunities for cost and service level improvements in product returns handling if the process is done right and Indigo WMS can help a business get this right. Indigo customers include Regatta, Puma and Panache Lingerie. A forthcoming white paper from Indigo will examine the cost of returns in the fashion and footwear industry.