Supply Chain Hits Reverse – We have Options

Last year consumers returned roughly $428 billion in merchandise, or about 10.6% of total retail sales in the U.S., according to a study by the National Retail Federation. In addition:

• Online returns more than doubled and are a significant driver of the overall growth of returns.
• Holiday returns estimate at $100+ billion.

A survey from Coresight Research found that 42.4% of consumers in the U.S. returned unwanted products from March 2020 to March 2021.  

Consumers expect the returns to be with ease and at no cost. Handling returns well build loyalty at the consumer level. The downside is that it’s costly. There is also a “dark side” of returns. What kinds of returns are acceptable, and which ones are not? Can you put it back into inventory, and if so, where do you need it? Or does it have to go to off-price channels? 

Returns add to the strained supply chain resources exacerbating the challenges of meeting profitability goals. As a result, Enterprises must choose solutions that promote Data, Agility, and No-Code to win this game.

3 Basic Do’s

Data: Redefine Visibility for Prescriptive Alerting –

Execute your supply chain with piercing visibility in real-time beyond disparate systems and dirty data.  Automate tradeoffs into the business process with the designed use of real data. Know early and act fast.

Agility: Automate your Strategy –

Connect policy and strategy through smart rules for optimizing your internal and external support chain for maximum responsiveness and resiliency to improve business outcomes such as customer promise, pricing, allocation, Available to Promise (ATP), sourcing logic, return management, profitability, and much more

Composable Solution: Think different –

Enterprises must recognize that one-time design, development, deployment is no longer relevant.   Instead, outrun legacy technology and business challenges by pioneering composable approaches without ripping and rebuilding the tech stack for smarter rollouts and faster business outcomes.

Conclusion:

Organizations that implement new technology with agility, data, and no-code amplify supply chain performance, alleviate risks, and predict outcomes today while laying the groundwork for the future of the supply chain.