Returns Revolution Webinar feat. Rithum

The webinar held by ZEOS and Rithum is a data-infused guide to effortless post-holiday reverse logistics in fashion e-commerce. Find out how you can optimise your returns to ensure maximum cost-efficiency. Watch it now, free of charge.

It’s that time of year again. The peak months of returns: December, January and February. Brought on by Cyber Week and Christmas. This is when having an efficient returns management system is the name of the game. 

If you are interested in finding out more about how to optimise your product presentation or country and commodity mix to help you reduce returns, then tune into our webinar on “Returns Revolution: A data-infused guide to effortless post-holiday reverse logistics”. In collaboration with Rithum, we show you how to leverage data to improve the efficiency of your returns management. Or, if you’d rather outsource the topic altogether, we explain how Zalando Returns Solutions (ZRS), powered by ZEOS, can facilitate this on the Zalando platform. 

The webinar covers a whole spectrum of insights specific to fashion returns management. Like a breakdown of the reasons why customers return items, and the product category with the highest returns rate. Which, by the way, is dresses. And the least returned items? Loose-fit articles like hoodies, sweatpants and T-shirts. Of course, these statistics differ depending on the market and even the sales channel mix.

So, how can you slow returns down in the first place? The webinar gives you a deep dive into the five key ways to do that, tailored to brands and retailers selling on European marketplaces:

• Give consumers accurate information and as many product details as possible.

• Localise content for the country or region to inspire more consumers.

• Improve your size recommendations. In fact, for items where Zalando provides size advice, size-related returns have decreased by 10%.

• Use data to optimise product assortment and understand what SKUs perform best on different channels.

• Use the features available on each marketplace (3D body scanning, virtual try-on tools) to help consumers find the right fit.

When it comes to fashion-specific logistics, we have one of the largest networks in Europe. In addition to 12 fulfilment centres, we operate 20 dedicated return and refurbishment centres, which ensures returns can be processed as fast as possible. That means a reduced time-to-online for your returns, so they can be sold again quickly, and faster reimbursement for your customers. A win-win. 

To support brands and retailers selling on Zalando, we’ve designed our Zalando Logistics Solutions, powered by ZEOS, to encompass a range of solutions. This allows us to tailor our offering to your needs. Like with Zalando Returns Solutions (ZRS), where you can choose from:

Pure

• Your customers can use a single box and return label for all items.

• Your customer makes the return using their preferred return option (for example, a parcel locker), after which the items are redirected to our nearest local returns centre. 

• We take over and process the return, including basic refurbishment. 

• We trigger the reimbursement. If any quality clarifications are needed, our Customer Care team manages it.

• We send the returns back to your warehouse in consolidated shipments.

Plus

• Points 1-4 are the same as for ZRS Pure

• We store returns in one of our fulfilment centres, all set for quick fulfilment by Zalando when the next customer orders.

So, where does Rithum come into the equation? Rithum provides a platform that helps brands and retailers to integrate, manage and optimise their marketplace operations across the entire marketplace journey. 

If you choose to leverage ZRS, Rithum will build a connection that communicates data about Zalando customer orders between yourself and their platform. This way, you can keep an eye on exactly where your stock is, at all times. 

Are you selling on multiple marketplaces and need a multi-channel logistics solution? Then ZEOS Fulfilment is the right fit for you. This is what a typical integration looks like:

• The first channel we help you unlock is Zalando. 

• You are now able to connect to any other ZEOS and Rithum-approved marketplaces.

• Rithum starts pulling orders, shipping updates and refunds from all the enabled channels within the Rithum platform, allowing you to manage multi-channel orders from one place.

• You can monitor sales for each sales channel and stock levels in real-time on the Rithum platform.

Just as not one size fits all, there is not one single logistics solution for every fashion and lifestyle business. With the right mix of solutions from Zalando and Rithum, this webinar shows how you can optimise returns processes, support internationalisation, meet or even exceed customer expectations and more.