29 November 2011 – Paul Galpin – MD of P2P Mailing

The e-commerce market is becoming increasingly competitive. Consumers have more choice than ever before, so one slip by retailers can result in customers defecting to a rival. Many factors influence a customer’s loyalty, but the returns process is particularly important. It has been proven that implementing a good returns process drives repeat orders and improves customer satisfaction. Research by Harris Interactive shows that 85% of customers say they will stop buying from a retailer if the returns process is a hassle and, conversely, 95% will return to the same catalogue or internet retailer if the process is convenient.

Despite this, some e-commerce businesses fail to even consider the returns process, with many leaving it to the customer to make their own arrangements to send items back. Some e-tailers (especially new ones) feel that because their business is small a returns process is unnecessary. Other companies put a solution in place but fail to give it the attention it deserves, meaning that customers are put off by inefficient and inconvenient processes. In fact, in order to encourage customers to make repeat purchases and promote growth, the principle of offering a returns service is important to e-commerce businesses of all sizes.

Getting it right

Undoubtedly, the returns process needs to be carefully thought out. So how do companies ensure that their function will meet customer expectations at the same time as being workable for the business?

There are three key considerations here. First, the system needs to be easy to implement. This involves being scaleable so that as the business grows the system can keep pace with increased traffic. Ideally, if the business is operating in different countries, the system will be rolled out under a single platform. This will not only create consistency for customers but will also reduce implementation costs.

Secondly, whether dealing with international or domestic mailing, it is important that the process is cost effective – whether the service is offered free of charge or at a cost. There can be import and duty considerations for customers located outside the EU, so it’s important that the system is set up correctly in the first place to ensure that the company is complying with regulations and that these costs are considered from the outset.

Lastly, it’s important to step back and view the process from a customer perspective, to ensure that it’s easy to use and reliable. Systems should be tested and tested again before being rolled out to the market.

Cross-border returns

As many companies seek to expand outside the UK, the subject of how to manage returns across borders is becoming more prevalent. Considerations that companies already make for their UK customers are more complicated when applied to customers abroad. Here are some key areas to look at when implementing a cross border returns process:

How easy it is for the customer to return items, for example, where will the drop points be?
How will the costs involved in returning the parcels to the UK be managed?
How long will the process take – how long will the customer have to wait for a refund or replacement item?
How can items in the system be tracked?
How can the rate of returns by market be monitored?
How can stock re-integration be managed?
How easy it is to implement the system?
Is the system scalable and can it grow with your business?
Are there considerations surrounding re-importing items back to the UK from non-EU destinations?

Using a third party

There are lot of considerations here which is why many forward-thinking businesses are partnering with an expert third party to plan and/or administrate the returns solution.

For example, the third-party provider should have a good handle on any tax and duty considerations for customers outside of the EU, and can advise on meeting these specific requirements.

The best providers will tailor the solution to the business, customising it to deal with national and regional differences where necessary. It should also be possible to integrate with existing IT systems and logistics providers to ensure minimal disruption and cost. Ideally, the returns process should be integrated into the website on a white label basis, so that as far as the customer is concerned, everything looks and feels the same.

By outsourcing the returns solution (and potentially the main distribution as well), companies can concentrate on simply producing a good website and online shopping experience for their customers. For small retailers especially, this may be an attractive option.

E-tailers that ignore the returns process do so at their peril. As competition hots up, the returns process is likely to become increasingly important as customers seek the best supplier. There are many considerations to take into account when developing a returns strategy. These not only include current requirements, but also how the business might grow, and whether the returns process can sustain that growth. This may include consideration of overseas expansion and how the company will manage cross-border returns and the ensuing complications.

Ultimately, the returns process needs to be tailor-made and carefully planned from the outset, to ensure that it works for the business and for the customer. Expert providers can help to ensure a smooth and efficient operation.

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There is a more effective way of dealing with these items, put them back in the letter box marked RETURN TO SENDER. For 16 years we, (www.veri-data.co.uk ) have been processing returned and undelivered mail for financial services and others. For each company we open and scan the relevant information required and return it to them on a weekly basis so that they can supress their databases, so they do not mail that person/address again.

We then recycle all the waste paper, for 80% of the carbon footprint of a direct mail piece is in the end of life solution. Our service also helps to reduce the opportunity for identity fraud and protects the brand image by not ‘irritating’ people by sending them material they do not want. Sadly not all mailers use a service like ours and in many large companies and charities there is a reluctance to engage with this matter. Nobody wants responsibility for what is perceived as irksome problem, notwithstanding it can save them money and cut their carbon footprint. (20gms of CO2 are generated by a piece of direct mail)

Like it or not Direct Mail works and a great many people are stimulated to buy, even if it only drives them to a web site. I also wonder how many people who complain about this issue would actually miss it.  For as Auden noted, ‘And none will hear the postman’s knock Without a quickening of the heart. For who can bear to feel himself forgot.’ or am I the only one who feels slightly miffed when the postman passes by and there is no mail?

NB Companies that dropped direct mail in 2009 are going back because they saw a drop in orders of up to 25% Wall Street Journal article 2011

Fortunately in twenty one years, not much has changed around here, no real development greenbelt. Thirteen houses and three farms, mostly dairy and sheep. Two of them now been organic for more than twenty years, as a result the hedgerows are alive with an amazing variety of wild flowers. Primroses have done especially well and now the bluebells creeping in.

For a couple of years we had skylarks in a large field not a mile away but huge works undertaken by Severn Trent has scared them off.  The curlews have returned having been absent for two years but their numbers like the Lapwings are well down. One critter that is multiplying significantly is the rabbit and the hedge rows on the lanes I walk Sam, our rescue Lab, are honeycombed with burrows. I gave up counting the number I see when I got to a hundred.

Around dawn I will see odd fox or badger and occasionally water voles and pine martins, they say there are otters on the river but I have never seen one. But twice I saw a kingfisher.  In abundance are Herons, buzzards, duck, snipe, geese, swans, and something I’ve missed. There are huge varieties smaller of birds unfortunately for them we have a pair of peregrines and in an explosion of feathers one took a ring collared dove in our garden, and the sparrow hawk is a regular visitor to the bird table.  After sunset tawny, little and barn owls and what I took to be a night jar. Sadly I have not seen or heard a nightingale since I lived at the The Boot in Willington, but we have hedgehogs.

Recently on our way home from Oswestry we saw a Red Kite, the first I have seen within forty miles of here.

CodEffect was originally designed to perfectly capture name and address information and to reduce the capture cost. However, when customers began adding their own data into the encoded barcode, this additional information became a great way to streamline many back office functions. For example, some applications our customers use CodEffect on include updating customer databases, validating the postal addresses, segmenting documents based on their commercial value and speeding up the process of collecting survey information.

Veridata is a division of Totalpostplc                   www.totalpost.com

Tesco Clubcard was the first customer. The CodEffect process reduced Tesco’s cost of capturing returned letter data by 50% – read the Case study. Look in the window of your next Clubcard envelop and you will see two little square boxes, they are the CodEffect barcodes. Since its beginning, CodEffect has continued to grow and develop. The software now has features for letters, packets and parcels, encryption, automated data feeds into accounting, database and document management systems.

In 2008, CodEffect was shortlisted at the World Mail Awards – the Oscars of the postal industry – in the Technology category.

Veridata gone away and returned mail handling are licensed by Arbutus Ridge  as users of CodEffect. We thoroughly recommend this bar code it can save considerable amount of money and provide valuable marketing information.

We recycle all waste paper that results from processing, which helps to lower your carbon footprint. 80% of the carbon footprint of a returned mail piece is in the end of life solution

Experian QAS has partnered with Data Asset Management specialist, REaD UK, to improve the ease with which organisations keep note of house moves and deceased contacts. REaD UKs data suppression files are now available through Experian QASs desktop software, enabling marketers to improve the quality of the data used for marketing campaigns, while improving ROI and customer perception.

Both the Bereavement Register  (TBR), the consumer service that helps stop direct mail being sent to the deceased, and the Gone Away Suppression (GAS) File, which tackles mailing customers who have moved house, can now be accessed through Experians software tool, QAS Batch with Suppression. The software can be operated from the desktop and will clean and standardise data and flag records that appear on REaDs data files. It can also be integrated into an organisations systems to constantly track deceased and gone away contacts in real-time.

Joel Curry, UK Managing Director of Experian QAS, said: As customer data is constantly changing, our clients have been challenging us to develop new ways to enable them to improve data quality quickly and easily without the need for heavy IT involvement or outsourcing. Experian has a broad range of data suppression files to allow the most cost effective tracking of house movers, deceased contacts and registrations to preference services. The new partnership further extends our data coverage and means that we can now also offer REaD UK suppression data via desktop software.

Richard Anderson, Sales Director at REaD UK, said: We have seen a rise in the demand for suppression data as consumers become less tolerant of organisations that persistently send communications to their old address or deceased relatives. The Bereavement Register and Gone-Away Suppression File (GAS) are now used by 70% and 59% respectively of all major UK direct mailers but there is more opportunity for organisations of all scales and sizes to improve their data quality as it impacts heavily on every aspect of customer engagement. We are looking forward to working with Experian QAS to enable more widespread access to our suppression data.

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Recyclers Face Junk Mail Fraud Risk

140,000 householders fall victim to identity fraud each year

Do you just put your junk mail into the recycling without even opening it or shredding it? Then you are among the 80% of the population who are putting themselves at risk of identity theft.

Every year we are bombarded by a staggering 15 billion pieces of junk mail, equal to 626 unsolicited letters per British household, but the consequences are more than just to the environment.

Those of us who admit to recycling our junk mail without even taking it out of the envelope are putting ourselves at high risk of fraud. All an opportunistic thief needs to cash in on our identities is a name and address.

Over a lifetime we will each throw 49,000 letters away unread – effectively giving fraudsters 49,000 opportunities to steal our identities, according to a shocking poll by CPP.

A staggering 140,000 householders fall victim to identity fraud every year and 13% of us are caught out due to stolen mail.

But the statistics reveal we are most at risk when moving house. 16% of us fail to tell people when we move, with a quarter of us getting so wrapped up in the trials and tribulations of changing homes we forget to tell banks, utility companies and the DVLA for at least 2 weeks.

Four out of 10 movers won’t bother to inform catalogue companies when they change address and 8% forget to tell their local council, risking personal information being sent to the wrong door. With the average person now moving 16 times in their lives most of us are leaving a clear paper trail for thieves to follow.

But despite previous address fraud being the most common method of identity theft, accounting for 42% of cases, almost a third of us naively rely on the new occupants of our old homes to forward our mail on to us. But shockingly less than half of new owners bother to send on any correspondence at all.

A spokesman from CPP said: “The results from this survey are terrifying – people don’t realise that by dropping 49,000 letters in the bin, they are effectively giving fraudsters 49,000 opportunities to steal their identity.”

Published by: http://www.reducereuserecycle.co.uk/greenarticles/recyclers_face_junk_mail_fraud_risk.php

Reduce Reuse Recycle
- Your Green Guide

Reduce Reuse Recycle
- Your Green Guide

We include catalogues in this context.

Most direct marketers would agree that embracing best environmental practice is a sensible idea. There are rewards for doing so but whether you agree that PAS2020 an onerous standard or a good discipline, the potential for reduced costs, reduced waste and increased campaign performance makes good business sense.

There also the benefit of Royal Mail’s ‘Sustainable Mail’, which offers postal services at a discounted rate if a company is proved to be compliant with PAS 2020. This can save mailers up to 4.7 percent off the standard mail tariff.

As a company dedicated to processing returned and gone way mail since 1996 we have to declare an interest in hoping that volumes of direct mail do not decline too quickly. In our part we have reduced the returns/’gone aways’ of one our larger customers (at their peak mailing 140 million pieces a year) from over 6% to under 2% saving them thousands of pounds.

Our aim is to minimise waste and thereby cut cost, by removing unnecessary volume, and by ensuring the ‘end of life’ solution where 80% of the carbon footprint occurs is addressed responsibly. We recycle all waste paper. It can also provide brand protection and reduce the opportunity for fraud – overlaying information from returns can identify hot spots/addresses and help to mitigate identity theft.

Taking care of your returns also offers a safety net from consumer backlash, because despite the economic times, consumers and the media are still being tough on brands that do business while ignoring the environmental impact.

After initial insults and greetings have been made and the pattern for the round established the conversation ambles along with a few pleasantries and then, we talk at each other, over each other, in earnest with each other, with concern one on one, or we listen before  mocking, confessing, denying, avoiding, enjoying, challenging or enquiring.

And so it goes: pogroms beyond the pale, patent rights for pharmaceuticals, Arsenal vs Barcelona, the Six Nations and the Heineken Cup, the price of fuel, netsuke with amber eyes, and Sebag’s ‘Jerusalem’, oak framed buildings, the strain of the herd being tested for tuberculosis, the number of dead frogs after the artic winter, Rilke’s letters, USAF losses in WW2, Audis, Bond movies, Katyn forest, Beria, Afghansitan, Egypt, the University at Delft, torn rotator cuffs, tweeting and davenports, Richelieu or Talleyrand, train journeys in South America, Lorca’s grave, sucking it in when you walk up the beach in Barbados, callipygian ladies, and tattoos lubricated by successive pints …… rambling, bumbling, stumbling for words, cracking into abuse and laughter at some stupid aside or new joke, dwindling at pee breaks or buying the next round.

We have been meeting for some years on and off and apart from the two who are wedded to their land, we are a peripatetic lot having lived and worked on all five continents, married, divorced, ups and downs, doubts and fears, but like homing pigeons always coming back to same part of England and the land know as home.

Six pints in 1985, 1975 I really can’t remember? Six pints today at £3.20 equals £19.20 x 6 rounds, is that a high price for an afternoon talking bollocks? For that’s what we call it and always have done. ‘I’m just going down the pub to talk bollocks with my mates.’

You can’t put a price on it because you cannot measure the pleasure, the psychological well being or that sense of easy familiarity and belonging. You can’t determine the educational content or the delight of learning or informing, the latter always with that edge of satisfaction of airing your knowledge, of bamboozling your mates of challenging or being challenged with the ultimate interjection,

‘What a load of bollocks.’

It was originally designed to capture name and address information and to reduce the capture cost.  It includes full name and address information but its range has been expanded to include streamlining back office functions.

For example, including updating customer databases, validating the postal addresses, segmenting documents based on their commercial value and speeding up the process of collecting survey information.

Benefits

•          Reduced CRM mailing costs by 5%

•          Response rates increased by 8%

•          Data integrity enhanced

•          Helps to mitigate identity fraud

•          Achieved immediate and tangible cash savings with CodEffect

•          Reduces data collection cost

•          Enhances data base  management

•          Automates suppression process

•          Integrates mailing process with business process to improve cycle times and reduce cost

•          Minimises barcode size

For more information and power pint presentation please contact Tim Craig tim.craig@veri-data.co.uk

PS included in our service is the safe destruction and recycling of all waste paper helping to cut your carbon footprint