Track Your Returns with the Return Analytics Dashboard
Rebecca Lazar

August 1, 2023

ReturnGO is proud to present the return analytics dashboard. The return analytics dashboard gives a visual representation of your product return data and displays it in an easy-to-understand form.

With the return analytics dashboard, you can gain valuable insights into return patterns and customer behavior, helping you make better decisions about pricing, products, the customer experience, and more. 

Having this data at your fingertips helps you take your eCommerce business to the next level.

What is the Return Analytics Dashboard?

The ReturnGO return analytics dashboard provides you with a transparent overview of how your products, customers, and return process looks and works using real-time return analytics.

An analytics dashboard is a data visualization tool that consolidates key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics into an easy-to-read display. 

Easily track your return data on your return analytics dashboard so that you can make informed decisions and improve your returns process.

Why Tracking Return Data is Important

It’s important to track return data so that you can optimize your return policy and return process to suit the needs of both your business and your customers. 

Make strategic decisions to reduce your return rate based on your understanding of your return reasons. 

Tracking and analyzing your product return data can help you identify any potential issues with your products or fulfillment process, ensuring that you are able to resolve them quickly and efficiently.

Return data is one of the most important types of information that an eCommerce store can track. By understanding what products are being returned and why you can make informed decisions that can improve your bottom line.

Monitor your return data to identify patterns and trends that can help predict future returns and optimize your eCommerce returns process. 

All your returns data is displayed in a clear, easy-to-understand way on your ReturnGO return analytics dashboard, using pie charts, graphs, and numbers to highlight your returns data.

A user-friendly layout with tabs to filter different kinds of return data based on different aspects of your eCommerce business’ process.

What Can You Do With the Return Analytics Dashboard?

Tracking your returns data is easy thanks to a user-friendly layout and tabs to filter the different kinds of returns data.

RMA Status: The Pulse of Your Returns Process

The “RMA Status” tab gives you an overview of your RMAs, items, and their value, as well as your return policy rules and how effective they are. 

By analyzing the number of returns within a specific time frame, you can spot unusual patterns, identify your most returned items, and see how much value has been returned.

You can see metrics like:

  • Total number of return requests
  • Number of items returned
  • Value of returns

So let’s say you notice way more returns than normal in a given month. You can dig into the data to figure out what happened and how to prevent it next time.

Example: You see a sudden spike in returns for a particular product. By diving deeper into the data, you find that the majority of these returns are due to sizing issues. Armed with this knowledge, you can update your product descriptions with more accurate size charts and reduce the number of future returns.

Requested: Unveiling Return Resolutions and Reasons

The “Requested” tab takes you into the minds of your customers and provides insights into their return requests. 

By understanding what customers are returning and why, you can discover issues with products, sizes, warehouse mistakes, and more.

You can see metrics like:

  • The most common resolutions (refunds, exchanges, etc)
  • Top return reasons
  • Most frequently returned products

Example: You find that a significant number of customers are requesting refunds for a specific product. Upon closer examination, you discover that the product images on your website don’t accurately represent the actual color of the item. Armed with this information, you can update the product images and reduce returns caused by color discrepancies.

Processed: Keeping an Eye on Transactions

In the “Processed” tab, you can monitor and review all the transactions issued to customers, including refunds, exchanges, store credit, and gift cards. 

Tracking these transactions over time helps you identify any unusual patterns and analyze your financial performance.

Example: After implementing a new return policy that encourages customers to exchange items for store credit instead of requesting refunds, you find that the number of store credit transactions has increased significantly. This indicates that customers are more willing to try out different products, leading to additional sales and increased customer loyalty.

Customers: Understanding Customer Behavior

The “Customers” tab lets you analyze customer behavior related to orders and returns. By tracking customer segments like first-time customers and repeat customers, you can gain valuable insights into customer buying habits and tailor your return policy to reduce return rates and increase profitability.

Example: You see that a particular group of repeat customers has a high average number of returns per customer. Further investigation reveals that these customers often order multiple variants of the same product to try out different options. Armed with this insight, you can offer size or color guides to help them make more informed choices, reducing the need for returns.

Insights: Actionable Tips for Informed Decisions

Looking at the “Insights” tab reveals actionable insights based on customer profitability segments, as well as insights related to products. This information can guide you in optimizing your returns process to retain more revenue and improve your overall profitability.

Example: You find that your most profitable customers tend to prefer exchanges over refunds. This suggests that they value the convenience and speed of getting a replacement item rather than waiting for a refund. To capitalize on this behavior, you can implement a streamlined exchange process to cater to your high-value customers and improve their shopping experience.

ReturnGO Impact: Celebrating Your Success

Under the “Impact” tab, you can see the real difference ReturnGO has made for your store. From retained revenue to time saved and even reduction in CO2 emissions, find out exactly how using ReturnGO benefits your bottom line and the environment.

Example: You discover that by using ReturnGO’s automated returns process, you’ve reduced the average processing time for returns by 40%. This translates to increased customer satisfaction while also freeing up your team to focus on other aspects of your business.

What Metrics Are Shown in the Analytics Dashboard?

Your return analytics dashboard is a powerful tool that can provide a lot of information about your store’s performance. Tracking key metrics can help you gain insights into your return data and identify areas for improvement.

There are hundreds of metrics you can track on the return analytics dashboard. Here are just a few useful metrics to keep an eye on:

1. New Revenue

ReturnGO provides lots of ways for you to encourage customers to choose resolutions that keep the revenue in the store and generate additional revenue.

On the returns analytics dashboard, you can see how much revenue was retained and how much new revenue was generated through resolutions like store credit, gift cards, and exchanges.

For example, if you see that customers often add money to their purchases when redeeming store credit, that is new revenue generated from the return, which can be extremely valuable. You might want to incentivize store credit to keep customers coming back and spending more.

2. Retained Revenue

Track how much revenue you’ve retained by offering exchanges, store credit, and gift cards.

Instead of losing money on refunds, encourage customers to choose smart refund alternatives that keep the revenue in your store.

3. Return Reasons

View a clear visual representation of the top return reasons that customers give for each resolution type. 

Easily compare the rates of different return reasons, gaining valuable insight into your return process.

Customers may return an item for a number of reasons, such as sizing issues or damaged products. The analytics dashboard helps you track these reasons so that you can take steps to avoid them and reduce your return rate. 

Identify which return reasons are most common for specific products, to identify patterns and take action to improve your products or product descriptions when necessary.

4. Resolutions

In the return analytics dashboard, you can see a clear visual representation of all the return resolutions you have defined as options, such as exchange, refund, store credit, and gift card.

The easy-to-understand display makes it simple to see how the rates of the various return resolutions compare, giving you insights into which options are most popular with your customers. 

Track your return resolutions to identify changes to be made to your products, shipping process, or return policy in order to optimize your business’ efficiency. 

Adjusting your return policy can lead to a visible change in the most frequently selected return resolutions.

5. Customer Behavior

In order to better understand your return analytics, it’s important to understand the bigger picture. Your returns analytics dashboard provides you with additional information about customers’ purchase and return patterns to help you better understand how returns relate to sales.

It’s important to know how much of your revenue comes from new versus repeat customers. New customers are important for growth, while repeat customers are key to maintaining a successful business. 

By understanding the trends in how your customers shop, you can see how that is reflected in their return patterns.

Look at information such as:

  • Proportion of revenue and returns generated by new customers versus repeat customers.
  • Average number of products ordered and returned by customers.
  • Frequency of customers placing orders.

Your customers are not all alike, and it wouldn’t make sense to treat them as such. Purchase and returns data can be combined to segment customers and pinpoint specific patterns for each group. 

Download Return Data Reports

The analytics dashboard gives you the option of downloading reports of all the different returns analytics data.

Downloading return data reports will give you a more complete picture of how your business is performing and where there may be room for improvement. 

With this information at your fingertips, you’ll be able to make more informed business decisions.

Use Return Analytics to Grow Your eCommerce Store

The return analytics dashboard provides a consistent, simplified view of your return data, enabling you to dive deeper into your data and figure out which products are being returned the most, why products are being returned, and what you can do to reduce your return rate.

Take your store to the next level by tracking your returns on the ReturnGO return analytics dashboard.

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