Prepaid Return Shipping Label

Product returns is a dark side of online retail small and large merchants are yet to find a long-lasting remedy to.

It happens even to the most careful retailers, and it is one of the downsides of the long-distance merchant-shopper relationship in online retail.

A customer can’t make a decision—to take or leave a product— there and then because they haven’t seen or tested it.  Sometimes a buyer only realizes “this is not what they wanted” after the item has been shipped to their doorstep.

No wonder more and more customers want a return shipping tag or label sent along with their order. A study by UPS found that over 30 percent of online shoppers want a prepaid return shipping label in the parcel containing their product.

For buyers, these tags ease the process of returning or mailing back an item that does not match up to their expectations.

A more economical way to do this to use ecommerce shipping software solutions for your prepaid return shipment label. Software providers ensure a retailer pays fees related to the return label ONLY if the item enters transit— because there are numerous instances when a buyers are satisfied and don’t want to return items.

Prepaid Return Shipping Tags: What are They?

These are prepaid labels that a seller includes in a package to help a shopper return an unwanted item.

A standard prepaid return shipping label includes the sender/dispatcher’s and receiver/recipient’s addresses as well as evidence of paid postage fee and a barcode for the human transporter to scan  the parcel and channel it back into the mailing system. 

But you must not always pay in advance for prepaid return shipping tags if you use shipping software solutions.

These software solutions allow a business owner to generate scan-based return tickets—which means a retailer only pays return shipping fees for the labels a carrier scans to reenter the mailing system.

Scan-based tickets help you avoid the expensive hassle of paying in advance for all prepaid return labels and requesting repayment for unused tags.

Shipping software allows a retailer to create return shipping tickets in two ways;

1. Form a PDF file of tag and send it to the shopper through email for easy printing and pasting on the return parcel
2. Print labels in advance and drop it in the parcel so that a buyer simply attaches it to the parcel for return.

Option (2) is a better way to go about it because customers love the convenience of a ready prepaid return shipping label.

Using Prepaid Return Tags to Expand Your Bottom Line

Customer experience remains a sticking point in online retail. If you sell items online, CX can makes or break your business.

For many buyers, the “shopping experience” doesn’t end at delivery, it ends at the ability to return an item they don’t want for an exchange or refund.

The study by UPS disclosed that nearly 60 percent of shoppers find free delivery vital to a hassle-free return experience, and more than half  (53 percent) are still okay and fulfilled with a brand that sends an unsatisfactory item but simplifies the product return process.

So CX doesn’t end at parcel delivery, simplifying the process of returning products can go a long way in making customers happy with you even if your product didn’t fit their needs.

In other words, simply including a prepaid return shipping label in a parcel can help you avoid customer churn and resulting negative reviews which could shake your bottom line in many ways.

Lastly, if you’re going to use scan-based tags it is important to learn that only return labels by the US Postal Service last up to a year so the shipping date doesn’t matter. Tags for Other carriers like FedEx expire after a 30-day window.

Closing Up

Your product can never be a good fit for ALL your customers. That’s why it is important to ease the return process to avoid ruining business relationships and chasing away shoppers for good.