Peak season is almost upon us! While we’re sure you’ve been prepping for the big sales season for months now, have you given any thought to how you’ll handle holiday returns? Holiday returns can be some of the most lucrative–or financially devastating–times of your sales year. The outcome largely depends on how you prepare to handle your holiday returns.

Make sure your brand is ready for the holidays. Download our Holiday Checklist here. 

At Loop, we obsess over returns, so it’s only natural that we’d have something to say about how you should handle your holiday returns. That’s why we pulled together our Holiday Checklist—so you’ll be ready to hit the holiday season head-on. Take it from the OG holiday hero himself, the guy in red who loves milk and cookies. Making a list and checking it twice is the best way to prepare for the holidays. 

In this blog, we’ll talk about all you can expect to learn from our new Holiday Checklist, including how to:

• Make holiday returns easy 
• Improve shopper experience using incentives
• Offer lots of return options to improve shopper experience
• Don’t let shipping ruin your holidays 

Make holiday returns easy

First and foremost, you’ll want to think of your holiday returns as another opportunity to connect with your existing customers—but also with new ones, too. After all, there are a lot of gifts floating around during the holiday season, and who knows what your existing customers may have given to their friends and family? By embracing returns and exchanges and making the process easy, you’re much more likely to win new customers—and keep old faves happy in the process. We offer a few great ways to simplify your return process in our checklist. Hint, hint: the first step you’ll want to take is automating your holiday returns with a great return management solution. 

Improve shopper experience using incentives

Once you’ve improved your shopper experience during the return process, now it’s time to think about how you can drive your customers to choose an exchange over a refund. After all, even if they don’t love the gift their distant relative or work friend bought for them, you’d rather keep that revenue in house. The best way to do that is to offer your shoppers smart incentives and product recommendations that will help them find (and fall in love with) another one of your products. Even better? Maybe the item they want just happens to cost a little bit more than their friend spent on their gift. Offering tempting incentives like bonus credit can really help a would-be buyer click purchase. 

Offer lots of return options to improve shopper experience

When was the last time you made a return? Was it during the holiday season, when everything was more hectic for everyone? Maybe. If not, try to put yourself back into your shopper’s shoes (easy, if you sell footwear), and think about what kinds of return options they might like to see. Some of your customers might prefer a simple pack and ship situation, while others might even pony up for more premium return options like scheduled at-home pick-up, packageless drop-off, and more. The best way to make sure that everyone heads home for the holidays with a smile on their faces is to offer a wide variety of return options. If you play your cards right, this can even help you save on shipping costs in the long run. Win-win. 

Don’t let shipping ruin your holidays

And of course, you really haven’t prepared for holiday returns if you haven’t started thinking about shipping. How are your shoppers going to get their returns back to you? What can you do to keep it from costing you an arm and a leg? And what about fraud? While the vast majority of holiday shoppers are on the nice list, there are a few grinches out there that are hoping to take advantage of your reverse logistics weaknesses. Luckily, there are a few smart ways you can prepare for these eventualities without breaking the bank, and with Loop, getting your shipping woes under control is easier than ever. 

If all of this doesn’t convince you to embrace your holiday returns, we don’t know what will. Maybe you’re already a holiday returns pro! And that’s okay. We see you. Just be sure to share the love with your shoppers! Happy holiday returns season!

Not sure where to start when automating your returns? Book a demo with Loop today.