Approximately one third of the thousands of articles of clothing that are returned to fashion rental service GlamCorner each day, tend find themselves in new boxes heading out that same afternoon, CEO Dean Jones has told Ragtrader.
Building a whole business on the sometimes-forgotten pillar of returns, Jones said that the golden rule for returns is to make it as high a priority as outbound.
"I would say to all retailers it's a marketing opportunity.
"If you make it hard for a customer to give something back maybe they will give up but they also will never transact with you ever again.
"It's something that's easily neglected but it's totally worth the investment for the customer happiness," he said.
Jones added that speed and efficiency are also key elements of getting returns right.
"We ship everything express.
"In fact, Australia Post shared with us recently that we are the single largest express post returns customer in the country,
because everything for us comes back express.
"We've had to invest in the speed and efficiency of our returns.
"We know we've got a long way to go but we would highly recommend to a lot of online and omnichannel retailers to spend time on that because it's a great way to add value to your customer and their experience," he said.