Customers Dissatisfied with Returning Products to Social Channels

While most Americans have a strong experience with buying online with muscular channels like Amazon or eBay (News - Alert), the concept gets much murkier when it comes to making purchases from social channels. Research findings released this week by SimplicityDX have found that two-thirds of so-called “social shoppers” have become more cautious about shopping on social networks again after a poor experience, usually involving the return of a product.

The research study of U.S. social shoppers reveals that the experience of returning online purchases makes most shoppers unlikely to buy again on social channels and instead turning directly to brand sites.

“Experience is critical in e-commerce, and this research shows that customers will change their behavior following poor experiences,” said Charles Nicholls, founding chief strategy officer at SimplicityDX. “With profits in e-commerce coming solely from repeat purchases, this should ring alarm bells for brands selling on social media. At this moment, product returns are already a huge problem, eating into profits for many brands. But the experience for shoppers must be good; otherwise, brands risk losing even more through lost future purchases.”

On one hand, it’s not all that surprising, given consumers’ propensity for refusing to do business with brands with which they’ve had poor experiences. On the other, in this case, the indication is defection from an entire channel, not just an individual brand.

Unlike mainstream e-commerce, social commerce is still in its infancy, with only eight percent of online shoppers and 36 percent of seasoned social shoppers having returned a product purchased directly from a social network. For those that have returned a product, the process has proved to be bumpy.

Smaller e-commerce channels often require shoppers to approach the social network to get a return merchandise authorization (RMA) and then give the number to the brand. In some cases, the brand doesn’t recognize the number, and the customer is forced to speak to the brand’s call center to get the return. In the study, social shoppers that had gone through the process were asked to compare their experience to Amazon; 60 percent rated their experience with Amazon as much easier.

“Integrations between the brand’s e-commerce platform and social media platforms are generally poor, leading to a range of issues including product availability, promotions, and return problems,” explained Ruth Peters, founding CMO at SimplicityDX.

The full report, “Social Commerce Returns Playbook,” can be read in detail on SimplicityDX’s website.

Edited by Erik Linask