Many on-line vendors have established pretty amazing reverse
supply chains. For the uninitiated, the
reverse supply chain is what happens when you decide to return something. If
you try to return your electronic gizmo to a store, they give you a hard time and charge
you a restocking fee. Not nice.
But many online companies use this as a differentiating
service. How many of you order ten pairs
of shoes from Zara, planning to try them all on and return 8 or 9 of them? You know you do it !! It
amazes me that Zara can stay in business this way. But they do. Amazon does much of the same with a really simple return process. They have pre-printed return shipping labels
in the box and the boxes and packing materials are designed for reuse. You just
pack it all back up and drop it back into the mail. Many online vendors do this to overcome your fear of making the wrong choice because you didn't see or touch the item yourself before purchasing.
What if we take Zara and Amazon’s expertise in reverse supply chain
design and do something good for the world? Consider this option. Instead of (or in addition
to) returning the 8 or 9 pairs of shoes you don’t want, throw in the one or two
pairs of older shoes you don’t need any more (now that you bought some new
ones). They could be redirected to
Goodwill using these efficient reverse supply chains.
There could be two preprinted labels, one to put on the
outside so the box goes back to the vendor and another that marks which items are returns to vendor’s warehouse and which ones are for redirecting to
Goodwill.
Here is the main advantage I see in this approach. Some of us don’t donate our old clothes,
shoes, electronics, or whatever because we are just too darned lazy. Some of us might not have a donation center
nearby. Some don’t know how. But if you are returning products to the online
vendor anyway, all you need to do is plop in the old
shoes/clothing/gizmos. The ease of use
could make the difference.
If the reverse supply chain is so efficient, it probably
wouldn’t add much to the cost. And the
branding value of supporting the charities, helping the customer support the
charity, making it so easy for the customer to support the charity (as proof of the brand's excellent customer
experience cred), making the customer feel good about herself by supporting the charity (and alleviating the guilt of buying so many shoes) and so in is easily worth the cost.
Don’t you think? What
am I missing?
