How to Offer Free Return Shipping and Make Money Doing it

When it comes to deciding if to make a purchase, or choosing between online retailers, your returns policy plays a big role. So big, that some 62% of shoppers say they wouldn't make a purchase from a store that didn't offer free returns, with three out of four saying that free returns are a differentiating factor when choosing between stores.

These are just some of the conclusions drawn from a study conducted by Klarna across 2,000 consumers in the United Kingdom.

Still, only 49% of e-commerce stores offer free return shipping. So what gives?

Well, with returns reaching upwards of 25% for many online stores, those return shipping costs add up, as does the time and hassle of managing returned items. So why offer free returns?

Setting aside for a moment that consumers expect free returns and are more likely to purchase when it’s offered, what if we told you that you could actually turn returns into increased revenue, all while reducing your time spent managing returns?

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How Swap can help

At Swap, we’ve spent years determining what returns management software should do. Retailers using Swap returns software retain 31% of revenue from returns, on average. That’s a lot of avoided refunds. By encouraging customers to exchange items or take credit instead of a refund, Swap keeps customers coming back, and keeps money in your pocket.

By giving customers the option to get the right item before returning the wrong one, you are making your customer’s life a lot easier, and in return, they make you one of their favorite brands. And increasing customer lifetime by making consumers happier will pay dividends down the line.

Think of it this way - returns keep people with your store or brand. It's a valuable post-purchase offering that wins trust and keeps customers excited to come back for future purchases. One way to kill that excitement? Asking customers to pay for their return.

With Swap’s easy plug-and-play software, you can set your own guidelines to fully match your returns policy, automating your returns process to save time and headache, all the while increasing retrained revenue and winning consumers for life.

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Next steps to consider

With all this said, the question shifts from "how to offer free returns shipping" to "how can you afford not to?"  With Swap’s easy-to-install software and 3-month free trial, there’s nothing stopping you.

Our product team can walk you through exactly how our system works with a short product demo. After that, we trust you'll see how Swap’s consumer-centric platform will help you come to love returns.