Midland Pallet Trucks, one of the UK’s leading providers of pallet and pump trucks, is calling on companies to invest in quality equipment, as a new study suggests that online returns are enough to fill forty premier league football pitches.
The study, carried out by Savvy Marketing on behalf of BBC Radio 4, has highlighted that almost two thirds of consumers who purchased women’s clothing online in the last six months returned at least one item. Putting pressure on retailers, many may struggle to cope with the influx of returns to warehouses, causing delays and mistakes during processing.
Speaking about the revelation, Phil Chesworth, Managing Director of Midland Pallet Trucks said, “The increase in mobile technology, such as smartphones and tablets has made it easier than ever to purchase goods at the tap of a few buttons, there and then. This immediacy has caused people to buy things they may not necessarily have bought if they had seen it in a shop. Coupled with simple returns processes, it’s very much the ‘norm’ to send things back if they’re not right.”
With such high numbers of goods being shipped in and out of warehouses, ensuring businesses have reliable and good quality equipment they can rely on during busy periods is imperative in order to provide consumers with smooth transaction processes.
Phil adds, “With the online shopping market set to continue going from strength to strength, the returns trend shows no signs of slowing down. It’s imperative that businesses arm themselves with the correct machinery and good quality tools in order to process these incoming returns so they can continue to provide a stellar service to their customers.”
Questioning over 1000 shoppers, the study found that 63% sent women’s clothing back in the period to May 2016, while 56% of all participants who bought any type of clothing returned at least one item. While many shops offer free returns as standard as a way to entice online consumers, they state that the costs of this have to be made up – which usually results in increased prices for goods.