Shanu Singh Guliani

Can You Compete with Internet Return Policies?
March 4, 2007

Because online shopping has grown to be the norm, return policies have become even more important. Unlike visitors that come into our brick-and-mortar jewelry stores, online customers don’t get to physically see and touch the item before they purchase it. Therefore, e-commerce sites have ensured that their return policies are fair and appealing to their customers by offering 30-day return policies with a full refund. Such online jewelry stores include:

1. Amazon
2. Bill Barnes Jewelry
3. Jewelry Central
4. Quinn’s Jewelers
5. Reeds Jewelers
6. Blue Nile

These lenient return policies have been adopted not just because the customer can’t see or feel the item but because “customer satisfaction is number one.” Even if the customer orders the item, wears it for a period of time without causing damage to it, and then returns it because he/she feels, “I just don’t like it or it’s not what I imagined it to be”—return it.

Given that a store’s return policy is important when making a purchasing decision, how do independent jewelry storeowners ensure that our policies are competitive, fair, and appealing?

Try asking yourself the following questions before setting your return in stone.

• Is it important to encourage repeat business or to make individual sales?
• What is the appropriate period for returns at other local brick-and-mortar jewelry stores?
• Is a receipt required?
• Do you incur any fees for returning—thereby charging restocking fees to your customer?
• Are Custom Order Sales Final?
• How do you handle alterations to an item in stock (sizing of a ring, lengthening of an anklet or bracelet) then returning it?
• What about a special order from a catalog?

SO—What type of jewelry store are you?

1. Exchange Only
2. Store Credit
3. All Sales Final
4. Complete Refunds
5. Restocking Fees

Posted by Shanu Singh Guliani on March 4, 2007 | Comments (4)