According to a recent study, returns cost UK retailers £60bn a year, £20bn of which is generated alone by items purchased online. Now, this isn’t all down to the items ending up in landfill, but a lot of returned items often come back damaged due to improper packaging, meaning retailers are unable to resell what was a perfectly good item.

This is ultimately a failed returns process as the goods have to be heavily reduced in order to sell them again or they will end up in a landfill.

A good returns process needs to be sustainable. It needs to improve value recovery, increase efficiency and keep costs to a minimum. But with 30% of shoppers admitting to deliberately over-purchasing items online so that they return unwanted ones, retailers are already set up for a challenge.

So how do you ensure a sustainable returns process? There are a number of ways:

• Choose a returns facility with locations near to your distribution centre. This will reduce your carbon footprint as you’re cutting down on road mileage.
• Have a smart returns management software that can help maximise value recovery with more return-to-stock.
• Reduce your prices to sell more and avoid landfills.

But, to do any of these, you need to first have in place a strong packaging solution you can rely on. You won’t be able to return items to stock or reduce prices if the item is damaged in transit.

We recommend Ribble Right Size packaging solution so that you can avoid your products getting damaged and easily repackage them to sell again at full ticket value.

If you would like to learn more about how you can adopt a more sustainable returns process with Right Size packaging, please get in touch.