Picture a World Without Returns

The week after Christmas Day is usually one filled with returns to retailers – if you didn’t get the gift you wanted, you hope Santa was kind enough to include a gift receipt.

Returns and credits are a huge part of wholesale distribution – a recent survey by the American Wholesale Marketers Association estimated that each return or credit can cost up to $200.  Reasons for returns include: wrong item ordered, damaged item, or perhaps an over-order.  With a $20 item, that’s ten times the sell price.  Some distributors have the sales and A/R paperwork automated, but don’t have a smooth process for returns.

Reducing and/or eliminating returns is one of the main ROI factors in automating with Ai2 software for sales reps and customers.  If a return can be avoided, four or five different people save time, paper and energy since they don’t have to pick up an item, bring it back, re-stock it and update the warehouse computer system.

H.T. Hackney paid for their Ai2 sales force automation software by automating the return paperwork, saving their outside salespeople, warehouse staff and drivers up to an hour each day.

Avoiding post-holiday returns is what every gift-giver wants.  Avoiding returns 52 weeks a year is one of the ways that Ai2 truly shines.