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How to Reduce Return Rates in Your Online Shop - it's so easy!

Reading Time 14 mins | March 27, 2019 | Written by: Saim Alkan

Online retail has always struggled with high return rates. Saim Alkan got to the bottom of the matter on his Blog with unbelievable results. We have summarized the findings for you:

Saim found out that 30% of customers return the product, because it does not match the product description. He referred to a statistic from Statista, which has done some studies on this matter.

What a crazy problem to have! On the other hand, this statistic points the way to a simple course of action for shop owners to improve their sales and reduce costs.

A quick calculation example illustrates the magnitude of the return problem:

  • A return rate of 10% is the lower average in retailing, as is an average return cost of $10.
  • For our example, let's assume 100,000 items per year and a shopping basket of $25 on average.
  • This means that the costs for returns in this case are 10% of 100,000 consignments at $10: $100,000 p.a.
  • Taking into account the lost revenue: 10,000 items at $25 are $250,000 per year.
  • In each case 30% of the returns and the resulting costs are caused by poor product descriptions. For our example, this means at least $30,000 to $80,000 in lost revenue.

 

How can we reduce returns?

Of course, better product descriptions would solve the problem. Let's have a look at Nike® flask belts, as Saim Alkan did when he was shopping for one in several online stores.

 

The images show the product presentation on the nike website.

Analysis:

  • The features are presented as benefits in the text.
  • Partially unknown color information is problematic for SEO.
  • Meanwhile (perhaps after reading the advice in Saim Alkan's article ;-)) they mention the most important feature, the filling quantity, in the heading and description. Previously you could only find it in the detailed description.

 

What about the same product at Schuster?

Analysis:

A description is attached to the product. However, Schuster points out once to 178 ml bottle content and then a little later to 300 ml per bottle - which is not correct and thus both prevents the purchase or leads to a return at the latest when opening the package.

 

How to avoid high return rates

Saim Alkan recommends: hire experienced copywritersat least one that automates product descriptions. Then the process scales and you get rid of many worries.

How automating product descriptions works

AX Semantics natural language generation (NLG) software for automated content generation is intuitive and quickly able to generate thousands of unique product descriptions based on structured data. AX software is 100% SaaS – everything is available from your desk via your web browser, no programming or IT departments required. Our self-service with integrated e-learning allows you to start automating text very fast - nearly 500 customers have already done this successfully.

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Congratulations - your use case has huge potential to make content creation with AX Semantics faster and easier.

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Congratulations - your use case has huge potential to make content creation with AX Semantics faster and easier. You can generate texts in up to 110 languages and streamline translation processes.

Sign up and start the free tour through the tool!

Nice Use Case for our software! With AX Semantics, these things can be excellently generated automatically and thus save a lot of resources. To automatically generate texts, our tool needs data as an information base.

Let's have a conversation to find out what information could serve as a basis for your texts.

Just fill out the form and one of our content experts will contact you!

With AX Semantics, data-based written content can be excellently generated automatically and thus save a lot of resources.

However, you only need a relatively small amount of text. Our tool, instead, is more worthwhile the larger the amount of text you need – or to realize completely new content formats which cannot be implemented manually due to time constraints.

If you are curious, feel free to take the free tour through the tool and see if it might be worth it for you.

With AX Semantics, data-based written content can be excellently generated automatically and thus save a lot of resources.

Our tool is more worthwhile the larger the amount of text you need – or to realize completely new content formats which cannot be implemented manually due to time constraints. Have you ever thought about category texts? Or personalized newsletters?

Take the free tour through the tool and see if it might be worth it for you.

AX Semantics is normally used to bring your data into written content. Signup for the free tour and see how that works with a real example - and then let's see together what we could do for you?

You have the best prerequisites to make repetitive writing faster and easier with AX Semantics. Number-based reports, studies or forecasts can be automated excellently with AX Semantics and thus save a lot of resources.

Sign up and start the free tour through the tool!

Using AX Semantics can save you a lot of resources. To automatically generate texts, our tool needs data as an information base.

Let's have a conversation to find out what information could serve as a basis for your texts.

Just fill out the form and one of our content experts will contact you!

With AX Semantics, category or product content can be excellently generated automatically and thus save a lot of resources.

However, you only need a relatively small amount of text. Our tool, instead, is more worthwhile the larger the amount of text you need - or to realize completely new content formats which cannot be implemented manually due to time constraints. Have you ever thought about category texts? Or personalized newsletters?

If you are curious, feel free to take the free tour through the tool and see if it might be worth it for you.

With AX Semantics, listing content can be excellently generated automatically and thus save a lot of resources.

However, you only need a relatively small amount of text. But this can be used in real time applications, driving your users to signup faster and better!

If you are curious, feel free to take the free tour through the tool and see if it might be worth it for you.

With AX Semantics, category or product content can be excellently generated automatically and thus save a lot of resources.

Our tool is more worthwhile the larger the amount of text you need – or to realize completely new content formats which cannot be implemented manually due to time constraints. Have you ever thought about category texts? Or personalized newsletters?

Take the free tour through the tool and see if it might be worth it for you.

With AX Semantics, listing content can be excellently generated automatically and thus save a lot of resources.

Our tool is more worthwhile the larger the amount of text you need – or to realize completely new content formats which cannot be implemented manually due to time constraints. Have you ever thought about real time applications, driving your users to convert faster and better?

Take the free tour through the tool and see if it might be worth it for you.

With AX Semantics, written content can be excellently generated automatically and thus save a lot of resources.

Our tool is more worthwhile the larger the amount of text you need – or to realize completely new content formats which cannot be implemented manually due to time constraints. Have you ever thought about real time applications, driving your users to convert faster and better?

Take the free tour through the tool and see if it might be worth it for you.

With AX Semantics you can bring your data into written content. Signup for the free tour, and see how that works with a real example.

AX Semantics is normally used to bring your data into written content. Signup for the free tour, and see how that works with a real example. - and then let's see together what we could do for you?

AX Semantics is especially worthwhile to use it if you create a lot of repetitive content. In terms of content, the texts you create always say something different, but the "events" repeat themselves. And that is also the point at which the tool scales.

Blog posts are usually not repetitive and not based on structured data. Therefore the implementation of blog posts is not the optimal use case.

If you are curious, feel free to take the free tour through the tool and see if it might be worth it for you.

This is Data: Data

Your use case might not be ideal to use text automation

Why? Our tool follows the rules resulting from the underlying data when generating content. For example, these can be tables with product, weather or other event data. If no data is available, the software does not know what to write about - therefore data is the basic requirement.

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Saim Alkan

Saim Rolf Alkan is Chief Executive Officer at AX Semantics and a pioneer in the field of automated content generation. After successfully working in content for years, he decided that businesses needed a better tool: one that would allow man and machine to work together to produce the volume of content needed to thrive in the digital age. Saim developed a content solution that generates high-quality texts from data in 110 languages for use in industries including e-commerce, publishing and finance. He is also a lecturer and speaker in the fields of online communication and "robot journalism" and has written several books and numerous articles.