As we enter Q4, retail and distribution businesses face the busiest months of the year, and often, the most stressful. With Black Friday, Christmas shopping and Boxing Day sales taking place within a matter of weeks, order volumes can increase significantly.
While businesses focus on getting orders out to customers, returns can quickly become another challenge – Unwanted gifts, incorrect sizes, damaged items and fulfilment errors all contribute to an increase in returns throughout the festive period, Returns spiked 80% in the first week of December alone.
Without an organised process, managing these returns alongside regular orders can put pressure on warehouse staff, customer service teams and stock management.
Why are seasonal returns difficult to manage?
One of the biggest challenges during November and December is the volume of orders being processed. Businesses are already working to meet delivery deadlines, and incoming returns create additional work for teams that may already be stretched.
Every returned item needs to be received, inspected and processed before a refund or exchange can be issued. Stock records also need updating to reflect whether the product can be resold.
For businesses selling across multiple channels, keeping track of this information becomes increasingly difficult, but even more important. Delays mean perfectly good products remain unavailable to customers resulting in missed sales.
How can businesses prepare for seasonal returns?
Preparing for an increase in returns before the busiest shopping periods can help businesses avoid unnecessary delays and disruption.
There are several ways retailers and distributors can improve their returns processes:
- Review your returns policy: Make sure customers understand return deadlines, refund timescales and any additional conditions during the Christmas period.
- Keep inventory records accurate: Update stock levels as items are received and inspected, ensuring unavailable products aren’t accidentally resold.
- Coordinate with couriers: Establish clear processes for return shipments, parcel tracking and deliveries back to your warehouse.
- Monitor returns data: Identify frequently returned products and recurring issues, such as incorrect sizing, damaged packaging or fulfilment errors.
- Communicate with customers: Ensure clear communication to customers during these times, prompt responses from support teams make a massive difference to customer experience. Research has shown the 70% of shoppers are unlikely to return after a delivery failure.
These changes can help businesses maintain a more consistent process, even when return volumes increase.
How can ERP software help with seasonal returns?
Returns affect several areas of a business, from inventory and warehouse operations to customer service and finance. When information is spread across different systems, keeping everything up to date becomes more difficult.
ERP software helps address this by bringing orders, inventory and customer information together in one place. Businesses can track returns against original orders, manage stock movements and reduce the amount of manual administration involved.
Integrating shipping and courier management software can also improve visibility over shipments and reduce the need to transfer information between separate systems. Unified systems have been found to improve on-time delivery by 10–25%.
This becomes particularly valuable during busy periods, when accurate information and efficient processes help staff manage returns without disrupting ongoing orders.
New Year Preparation
Although November and December are particularly demanding, the returns process doesn’t end when Christmas is over. January often brings another increase as customers send back unwanted gifts and Christmas purchases.
Businesses should use this period to review return rates, processing times and recurring customer issues. Understanding where delays occur can help identify improvements for the following year.
Returns may be unavoidable, but with an organised approach to inventory, orders and shipping, businesses can reduce unnecessary costs and maintain a better customer experience throughout the festive period.