Shoppers hoping to nab festive holiday gifts online this year may need to prepare well in advance for their purchases. 

Numerous retailers are setting earlier deadlines for merchandise ordered online to reach customers’ homes before Christmas.

Return rates for many retailers can make or break a company, particularly those in fast fashion. Post festive season is one of the most costly and turbulent times in fashion, mainly because of the shopping frenzy that takes place ahead of Christmas, along with the office and party season. 

Items get worn, and sent back. Presents get bought and then either exchanged, or a refund requested so the logistics tends to impact virtually every part of the business, along with the additional environmental impact.

Retailers typically use delivery cut off dates as a competitive differentiator, and during normal times, they push them out as far as possible to appeal to last-minute shoppers. 

That strategy comes with extra risk this year, particularly as 'just on time' strategies and logistics are being tested like no other. And, in a year marked by retail closures, lack of resource, containers being lined up at ports like a holiday weekend traffic jam, there’s little wiggle room for other unforeseen disruptions due to factors such as wicked winter weather.

But this year, retailers large and small are encouraging customers to shop early to shift demand and ease supply chain backups. Some U.S. shoppers are panicked that supply chain snarls will spread to home delivery of Christmas gifts.

If you operate as a multi-channel retailer no doubt those stores will be carrying a high percentage of stock in the anticipation that shoppers feel more inclined to have the 'physical shopping experience' in preference to the relatively hassle free online bland transactional experience - however with more people than ever opting to move shopping habits online how much of this stock will be under utilised and left on the shelves for further markdown and clearance I wonder.

But is it all really wine and roses for the pure play retailer?

In late 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon had begun freezing the accounts of shoppers ‘who made too many returns’. Meanwhile in April 2019, ASOS announced its own crackdown on ‘serial returners’, deactivating transgressors’ accounts, while research by Brightpearl of 200 retail executives found that two-thirds of respondents were willing to follow Amazon and ASOS’s example.

Simply factoring in higher than average return rates is one thing, but factoring those returns during a time of year when retailers are looking to keep resource cost down is where we often see most of the pain being felt. 

To get to the root of the problem, retailers instead need to ensure that the products offered to individual shoppers online are right for them to start with. This is a complex challenge, but it can now be solved using big data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) that takes consumers’ personal preferences and shopper habits into account. 

The other low cost, no cost tool in the retail playbook is that of 'social media' as a key communication and engagement platform.

Social platforms are a great low cost way to help inform and educate consumers around sizing and other valuable information that can create a win/win situation and help to take the strain and stress out of the process for all.