70% of shoppers of an eCommerce site are reviewing the site's return policy page prior to shopping. What do you do?

Clarifying questions -

What is being sold by this site? - All range of clothes for females.

And as per my understanding -return policy page specifies - At all if a product can be returned or exchanged or not and if yes, that in what duration and what will be the specifications that will be validated before accepting the return. Finally, how and when the customer will get their money back. - Correct

So I have to see this from POV of a PM in the org? - Yes

Prior to shopping means? - Before even starting to see the product or before checking out? - Before even starting the shopping

Before digging into anything, I would like to understand the user journey and what are the consequences of visiting this page as per data -

User journey on a high level must be -

User logs in

User searches for the category or the product she wants to buy

User explores different products from product page

users selects and adds to cart

From cart, user proceeds to checkout

After reviewing the order, User pays with method of her choice

User completes the transaction and waits for the product to be delivered.

Here - where user is seeing the return policy page the most? - Before searching the product/category she wants to buy.

Ok, just one more question to understand the problem statement - What is the conversion rate for these 70% or users and rest of 30% of users? Here I want to understand how visit to this page is impacting the organization? Is it a problem or a good thing for org which is leading to higher conversion? - These 70% of users have less conversion rate than rest of 30% users. Which means that after visiting the return policy page, users tend to abandon the cart.

Understood….

I will take a minute to come up with a structure to solve this problem…

1. Demography and geography

   1. Is it happening for a specific geography?
   2. For any particular kind of users? (Demography)?
   3. Is it happening for first time users only or repeat users?
   4. Happening on mobile or website?
   5. On android or IOS?
   6. happening before shopping for a particular category?
   7. Since how long it is happening? - since inception

2. Why less conversion rate?

   Visiting the return policy page is not an issue, however, less conversion rate is an issue. First of all I would like to understand what is happening after reading the policy page that customers are not proceeding ahead? I will revisit the return policy and see what clause is not very favorable for users.

   1. there can be a category for which users may not be allowed to return or return policy is a bit harsh such as - lingeries. because of hygiene concerns, these cannot be returned or exchanged.
   2. Gifts - If intention of buyers is to send wrapped gifts, in that case also return policy can be consulted for. And it may so happen that my policy is harsh for gifts..
   3. price point of site - If price points on website are very high, then customers may have doubts before shopping about quality of products. And return policy may not be very encouraging.
   4. Antique and unique products - If website is selling something that are unique - like celebrity owned clothes or something like that, in such cases also customers may be concerned about the originality of the product and return policy may lead to divert the customer.

In such cases, I will work on trust factor on UI itself and will communicate the trust by images, copy, earlier buyers feedback and ratings, and other possible ways, so that customers do not thinking of returning before ordering.

1. Internal factors

   1. Page placement? - I will check the page placement and all the points leading to this return policy page. Page may be wrongly placed in the customer journey and customer may be irked to see return policy and hence stops the buying process. Correct placement of the page and proper size of button is important to have good customer experience.
   2. Kind of products being sold - i will again check all the categories being sold on the platform and see what kind of products are not meant to be returned or exchanged. I will be more keen on generating trust for these categories both by ads and landing customer testimonials on landing page.
   3. Number of returns in past - I will visit the total returns in past. I will check how easy it was for customers to return the product and get the money or exchanged product.
   4. Consumer complaints - I will also see the kind of complaints I am getting from customers regarding returns. I will check the categories and kind of queries and complaints consumers have and if there is a trend in those complaints.
   5. Some nudge on UI that brings users to return policy page? I will also check if there is a nudge on UI that is sending buyers to return policy page. If so, I will analyze the categories for which this is happening and what clause in return policy may lead to less buys. If there is a way to communicate required message.

2. External factors -

   1. Company reputation on social media and news - I will have a word with content team to understand people’s perception about the site. if there is something that is leading to wrong perception about returns. If any influencer or celebrity had bad experience - I will mellow down that sentiment.
   2. Returns for similar products on other websites - Another reason for this behavior can be - users are finding it difficult to return such items on other sites and hence are skeptical on this site too. In this case, i will communicate the stronger reasons to buy from my site.
   3. Competitor’s claims - Is there any competitor who is spreading rumors about return on my site. I will talk to customers who have been in that 70% cohort and understand the reason

3. User behavior -

   1. There is another aspect of user behavior - If a user is buying any particular kind of product online for the first time, in that case his first instinct is to see if that product is returnable or not. I will analyse the categories if any category falls in this. In this case, I will ease out the return policies a bit to make sure customers try that category online.
   2. Also there can be situation where there are discounts on bigger order value and customers are adding products just to take the discount/offer. And coming to the return policy page to see if they can return the unwanted product later on. In such case, I do not thing there is anything that I should do. I can just revisit the discounts to see if I want to give those discounts on lower order value.
   3. Another thing to be see - if a user is buying the product just to see if that fits on her or not. and if that doesnt fit, user will return that. in such cases also this behavior is expected. I will have to understand the prospects of introducing try and buy on platform in such case or to better communicate the dimensions and fitment of the product on site.

Approach:

1. Pose clarfying questions and understand the ask better

2. Do the root cause analysis

3. Action based on the root cause analysis

4. Conclude

1. Understand the ask better

Candidate: Is the ask related to figuring out if the customer behavior is symtom of the underlying problem or not

Interviewer: Yes

Candidate: Is this behavior observed during a particular time of the year or is this is a constant behavior

Interviewer: It is a constant behavior

Candidate: Is this behavior tied to a particular device such as desktop, mobile or particular location

Interviewer: It is happening across the board

Root cause analysis:

A. Customer tenure: I would check to see if this behavoir primarily exhibited by the first time customers.

 

B. Product categories: If this behavoir primariyly exhibited by the customers purchasing particular product category that are generally purchase offline such as clothes, shoes, groceries etc

 

C. Gift purcase: If the customers are gift wrapping the items, then they are purchasing it for others.

If so, it is not necessarily a problem because customers want to just ensure that they can return in the future if needed

D. Unsuccessful return attempts in the past: If the customers attempted to return items in the past but were unable to return, then these customers want to ensure that they understand the policy before they purchase the item.

If so, we need to track the conversion rate of the cusotmers that checkout the return policy page vs. the customers that they do not check the return policy page.

E. Return records trackers: We can track the customer returns for the cohort that check the return shopping page and the cohort that do not check the return shopping page

Actions based on the root cause analysis:

A. Customer tenure: Behavior is primiarily exhibited by first time buyers.

If so, it is not necessarily a problem, just that customers want to be aware of the return policies

B. Product categories: Behavior is concentrated across the customers that buy grocery or apparel

If so, it is not necessarily a problem, just that customers want to be sure that they can return the item in case the apparel does not fit well or grocery is not fresh etc.

C. Gift purcase: Tho those that check the return page are gift buyers. If so, it is not necessarily a problem because customers want to just ensure that they can return in the future if needed

D. Unsuccessful return attempts in the past: Those that are check return page was unable to return items and had negative experience in the past and conversion rate is lower for this cohort, compared to others. 

Then I would review the return policy to make it more customer friendly, in order to drive the customer conversion

E. Return records trackers: Those that check the return page return more items in general.

In which case, I would check if these customers exploiting generous return policy. For example, customers that buy items knowing that they can return it in the future after some use. It might be bad actor problem.

Then I would put in place a upper limit for number of items that can be returned in a year.

Conclusion:

I would double-click on the metrics and go one step deeper to understand the customers segemt, product segment, prior customers expereince of those that check the return page vs. others, post customer actions of those that check the return page vs. others, conversion of customers that check the page vs. others. Accordingly, I will either no nothing, make the return policy customer friendly to improve the customer experience, or address the gaps or loop holes in the return policy to protect the business against the bad actors.

Is this a generic question on any eCommerce site or specific to your company, Shopify ?

Interviewers : No, this is generic behavour of people shopping on online sites.

Here is my hypothesis:

People are not able to clearly understand the product & product features with the pictures, descriptions on the site. So they worry they might not like it & want to the return policy before they back.

Following are some of the steps eCommerce site can take to help with boosting the confidence of the customers/buyers.

1) Make the description of the products as good as it can get. Clearly explain the features and what it does not support.
2) Enable customers to comment on their experience unfiltered.
3) Make it easier to return, so people can buy with confidence
       a) Offer paid return labels if the customers have to return.
       b) Partner with local shops to collect them, so it is not a burden on the customer to package, find carrier etc. I.e Amazon Kohl's partnership for returns. It is great partnership as it brings customers into the shop for the local vendors.
4) Provide clear timeline when and how the $$ are credited back, hopefully not holding them up for long.