Simplifying Product Returns for Retailers, Etailers, and Consumers Using SEKO Logistics’ OmniReturns

SEKO Logistics’ New OmniReturns Service

SEKO Omni-Channel Logistics is reinventing and simplifying the product returns process for retailers, etailers, and consumers globally by combining best-in-class logistics and carrier processes with award-winning in-house technology designed to reduce costs, provide end-to-end shipment visibility, and the best possible customer experience.

Currently, at least 30% of all products ordered online are returned, compared to just 8.9% of goods bought in bricks and mortar stores.

Such is the influence of the returns process in consumers’ buying decisions, 67% of shoppers say they check the returns page before completing their purchase, and 92% of customers will buy something again if returns are quick and easy, and preferably offer free shipping.

With its growing portfolio of cross-border etail and retail customers globally, SEKO’s innovative OmniReturns service gives sellers:

• Visibility from label creation to stock re-entering at the etailer/retailer warehouse
• In-country returns carriers and processing hubs in major eCommerce hubs around the world to get sellers closer to customers at lower cost
• Complete global customs compliance and repatriation services
• Multiple consumer engagement methods from portal access to API (Application Programming Interface) access to carrier labels, enabling sellers to control the returns journey in line with their supply chain strategy
• The ability to automate customer refunds or store credits at the key milestones of 1st carrier scan anywhere in the world, processed within the SEKO hub, or on the management dashboard

Justin Irvine, Chief Product Officer at SEKO Omni-Channel Logistics, said: “OmniReturns combines all the knowledge and best practice we’ve learned in the last 5 years as we’ve designed the most innovative fulfillment and logistics solutions for etailers and retailers across our global network. Out of this has evolved what we believe is a market leading, cloud-based platform which enables customers to see the complete life cycle of a return.”

“We didn’t simply want to sell on someone else’s flawed returns offering or processes, we wanted to create substantial value through aggressive first-mile procurement and controlling operations with SEKO staff at each hub point with complete transparency. For consumers, it’s a frictionless solution designed to encourage brand loyalty with the companies they’re buying from and to get them spending money with the etailer/retailer again as quickly as possible.

Our ability to tailor each country to the local customer expectations, mixing up pre-printed labels versus portal interaction, right through to store credit on 1st carrier scan versus stock physically back in a DC. It really does offer a complete returns solution to the largest ecommerce markets. Our new OmniRPS BI tools are now giving different etailer/retailer business units actionable intelligence so that finance teams, buying teams, and logistics teams alike can make better business decisions on global data which is being refreshed every 2 hours.”        

SEKO’s global returns operating platform – OmniRPS - delivers complete transparency of all returns across every aspect of the supply chain as well as the ability to operate in etailer/retailer, 3PL warehouses or in SEKO hubs around the world to process returns, plus integration for data and automated refunding via a native Shopify or Magento API.

Retailers are now using OmniRPS within their own operations so that it becomes their ‘one version of the truth’ for all returns functions.

With the new ‘one scan’ returns processing function within OmniRPS, retailer warehouse teams are able to simply scan a carrier consignment note and verify all returns with a one-touch confirmation that automates both store credit/refund, and which sends stock ASN to their WMS for fast put away.

OmniReturns’ customer-facing, multi-language portal offers a choice of carriers, free or paid returns options, pre-printed labels on dispatch, or API access to labels if the seller has its own returns portal.

The portal offers two options: 

1. To push data on outbound deliveries via FTP or API so consumers can select the items they’re returning, giving etailers/retailers faster insight and analytics of what’s happening globally with their returns 
2. An easy ‘plug and play’ solution where the customer creates a generic return, requiring no integration at all 

Consumers using the service simply go onto the specific etailer/retailers’ returns page to confirm the goods they’re sending back, and to generate a returns label via email. They then drop-off the parcel as per the instructions to their local postal provider and can track the entire return process domestically and internationally back to the seller, ensuring refunds are processed quickly.     

OmniReturns’ network currently covers over 30 countries in the UK, Europe, and Scandinavia as well as the US, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. In the US alone, SEKO Omni-Channel Logistics is giving consumers a choice of 105,000 locations where they can drop-off their return.     

Paul Waddy, Head of Operations at Showpo, one of the launch customers for SEKO’s new OmniReturns service, commented: “Showpo has worked with SEKO to create an industry-leading returns solution for our customers. Customers from all over the world can return parcels with ease, and with full visibility through our returns portal, which works hand-in-hand with SEKO Omni-Channel Logistics' RPS technology.”

“Our four global returns hubs are now synced with our Sydney warehouse and OmniRPS gives us a complete picture of returns, globally and domestically. This makes it a seamless, integrated returns experience anywhere in the world for Showpo customers,” he said.

Brian Bourke, SEKO vice president of marketing, told Jeff Berman of Logistics Management that this product is a natural evolution of SEKO’s consumer-focused ecommerce logistics solutions including cross-border parcels.

“The consumer really has all of the power today thanks to the Internet and smartphones, and we are building our freight technology more and more around improving the consumer experience with easy to use technology,” he said. “As they say, if it’s not stupid easy, it’s just stupid.”

Returns are one of the biggest pain points for almost every retailer and brand, explained Bourke, and that led SEKO to identify that there is a real gap in the market for a global solution. 

“Sometimes the biggest issue isn’t the disposition of the returned items, but rather the time it takes to refund the money upon verifying the product is returned,” he said. “When it is coming from Australia or Germany, that time could take weeks. This is a really great opportunity to create a better experience for returns that will keep happy shoppers coming back to their stores and shopping carts more often, and it will importantly give US brands a great tool to scale globally with a better piece of mind on solving the returns puzzle in other countries. For consumers, it’s a frictionless solution designed to encourage brand loyalty with the companies.”  

SEKO began to offer this service in Australia, followed by the United Kingdom and is now able to offer the same service experience globally, especially for the United States market, said Bourke.

Related Article: Using a Single Third-Party Logistics Provider to Support Worldwide Supply Chain Operations

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