[Tip #2] Make returns a breeze

You can only benefit by making the return easy for the customer. By making things too difficult to return, you’ll only annoy them and lose their business. Making the returns process easy is thinking in the long term for your business.

(Warby Parker takes returns seriously. You can tell because instead of trying to be as vague as possible they give you a phone number to call so you can talk to a real person, instead of just an email (but they have one of those too).)

But what does “easy” mean?

Give them multiple ways to return it

Have a brick-and-mortar location near them? Let them return it in-store. If not, let them ship it back and do the returns process online.

Give them a generous time frame

Life happens and people lose track of time — being stingy about when they can return the item is only going to frustrate them if they feel like it was too short.

Be flexible about receipts, tags, etc.

These days, it’s easier than ever to just look someone up in your system and verify with a card. There’s usually no need to force them to keep a receipt or tag on the item.

Include a prepaid shipping label

If you’ve decided that you’re going to eat the shipping costs, it makes sense to include this sort of proactive and helpful move for your customer. The option is there if they need it, and they don’t even need to spend the time going to your website, finding the returns section of your FAQs, and figuring out how to send the product back.