Royal Mail has announced the launch of a returns-processing portal aimed at its retailer customers.
Shoppers with items to return will be able to log on, register their return, print off a returns label and monitor the progress of their item back to the retailer, via Royal Mail’s Tracked Returns service, which contains five tracking data points across the Royal Mail network. More importantly, it will mean the retailer has prior knowledge of a return, including the reason the item is being sent back.
Nick Landon Royal Mail’s Managing Director for Fulfilment and Parcels said: “Royal Mail is pleased to announce the launch of the new returns portal to help online retailers better manage returns while also improving the experience for their customers. Research shows the importance for online retailers to provide an easy returns experience for their customers if they want them to buy from them again. Seven in ten people who have had a difficult experience returning unwanted items are unlikely to order from that retailer again.”
The introduction of the returns portal follows the launch last year of a new parcels shipping and tracking platform to enable e-retailers to improve integration between their IT systems and Royal Mail.
Royal Mail also made its Local Collect ‘click and collect’ service with Post Offices available to its 20,000 SME contract customers in 2014. This enables many of the UK’s leading small and medium size online businesses to offer shoppers the option of collection from any of 10,500 Post Office branches.
Last autumn, Royal Mail announced an investment of around £130 million over five years in hand-held technology to provide more flexible delivery for customers and better tracking capability.
