Thursday, January 10, 2008

the return-o-meter

i came across this case study on MarketingSherpa about Shoeline.com using the data they have on the return rate of a particular product in the sales process.

they used a simple green, yellow and red approach letting the customer know whether the products return rate was below average, average or above average. You can actually see the "return o meter" here

they claim to have seen these results:

Still, compared to last year, they’ve seen:

o 10% drop in their returns

o18% higher clickthrough rate on product pages

o 26% increase in overall sales

I had never heard of them before and certainly the online shoes market is pretty saturated. And returns have always been a challenge online, but they've turned it into an opportunity to provide better customer service.

Of course, some shoe sales certainly were impacted and I am sure there are some unhappy manufacturers out there (the ones that care anyway). But still an interesting story.

Would you be interested in seeing the "return o meter" for childrens clothes. Is it enough to know that Oilily dress or catimini outfit was returned or do you really want to know why it was returned. many online retail sites have implemented technology that allows customers to review products and claim similarily impacted results on sales.

great idea, anway.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The real tragedy behind this brand is that Jeroen and Miray threw so many of the effective management team under the bus. Their selfish motivation was revealed upon the discovery that the 2 of them are having an affair. SORRY for the loss of a great brand.