Hello again everyone, it's Johnny from the Shopster Customer Support team.
If you read my last blog post, I touched on general Customer Service tips. Today, I have another tip for you, this time with a Seasonal twist -making sure your Returns Policy fits the needs of a Christmas Shopper.
It may still seem far off, but Christmas is only 80 days away! What does this mean? It means you're going to have a lot more business coming to your storefront. It also means you’re going to have to modify how you support these customers over the Holiday Season. Adjusting your Returns Policy is just one thing you can do to get ready for Christmas, but it’s something I highly recommend.
With a typical Returns Policy, customers only have a certain amount of time available to request a return on a product (usually 7 or 14 days). The trick with holiday gift shopping, is that people buy start buying early (late October is usually when sales start to pick up), but don’t actually open and use the gift until Christmas morning (well after the 7-14 day window). Without a Holiday Returns Policy, you’re certain to upset customers by not accepting returns on products bought as Christmas gifts.
My suggestion is to post a revised Holiday Returns Policy on your storefront. Make sure that you announce the change on your home page (or even show the Holiday Returns Policy there so everyone is aware of it) and make the appropriate change to your Return Policy page.
When creating a holiday returns policy, you will want to give your customers a start date - meaning that any order made after that date until Christmas will apply to your Holiday Returns Policy. Any orders made after Christmas should adhere to your regular return request deadlines.
You then need to set a cutoff date. In other words, for those orders that fall within your Christmas Return Policy start date, you will need to decide how long after Christmas these customers have to request a return should anything be wrong with the order. An extra 7-10 days should be more than enough.
Hopefully, you will not have to do many returns, however an extended Returns Policy provides customers with additional peace of mind, as they know that they can return a product after it's been opened. A Holiday Returns Policy can also benefit your Christmas sales, because customers are more likely to purchase from a store that makes allowances for the holiday shopping season.
For any Canadians out there have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Johnny
Comments