Austin, TEXAS – Jan. 31, 2017 –Convey, the leading customer-centric delivery platform, today announced a new self-service customer portal that makes it easier for shoppers to request and schedule pick-up of large-item returns online. The new features are part of Convey’s Initiate hosted shipment execution tool that helps retailers dynamically optimize carrier selection and process return requests more efficiently.
Online retailer Living Direct has already seen a 34 percent average cost savings on freight returns using Convey’s Initiate solution. The company hopes to achieve even greater efficiencies with Convey’s new customer-facing tools.
“The large items we sell — consumer appliances, indoor air quality products, and lawn and garden furniture — have unique shipping requirements that involve significant carrier logistics and customer coordination,” said Rick Lundbom, CEO, Living Direct. “Too often, shopper concerns about ease of delivery and return will impact a buyer’s final decision. Convey’s self-service tools will give customers the visibility and confidence they need to make informed purchase decisions.”
Until recently, returning a large item was a highly manual and inefficient process, requiring significant coordination and communication between carriers, retailers and customers. In some cases, the burden of identifying a carrier and scheduling the return was on the shopper, creating an exceptionally poor experience.
With Convey Initiate, retailers can increase the speed and convenience of large-item return processes while giving customers greater transparency into, and control over their online shopping experience. New features and benefits include:
- Self-service portal
- Enables shoppers to initiate large item return requests without engaging a customer service representative
- Empowers shoppers to schedule large item pick-up at their convenience without risk of missing the carrier
- In-transit data
- Provides retailers real-time returns status allowing them to credit shoppers sooner, preempt carrier claims and manage shipment exceptions
- Rich customer insights
- Capture valuable shopper data that helps retailers optimize packaging, product design and carrier claims to minimize future returns
“Creating an exceptional returns experience is key to driving customer lifetime value,” said Rob Taylor, CEO of Convey. “Very few retailers empower customers to initiate these types of large-item return requests, and even fewer make scheduling the pick-up appointment easy or convenient. Our goal is to give customers more control over the delivery experience while providing greater efficiency, ROI and success for the companies that sell to them.”
In related news, Taylor recently released his predictions for 2017, outlining customer-centric trends that will shape the future of supply chain investments. Among them:
- Post-purchase communication will evolve from delivery tracking and notifications to include true customer/retailer/carrier collaboration. This will give shoppers more control than ever before, and empower customer service organizations to become more proactive “concierges”.
- The role of the supply chain leader will be redefined as they become more responsible for and accountable to measures of customer experience. Supply chain technology will also be forced to evolve, providing more real-time data that supports new customer experience-focused efforts.
- Carrier networks will become more specialized and localized as shoppers demand more diverse options. Drop-off boxes, pick-up lockers and premium services such as UPS My Choice will become the norm, driving more infrastructure investments in real-time data, communication and intelligent decision solutions.
- Retailers will seek complete end-to-end supply chain visibility in response to omni-channel retailing and heightened customer expectations. This will require transformational changes to teams and technologies, and shift the focus from internal operations to improving the customer experience.
About Convey
Convey enables retailers to take control of the customer delivery experience. We provide the experience shoppers demand and the efficiency retailers require. Our cloud-based platform aggregates and normalizes disparate data across carrier, retailer and customer systems, giving retailers the insights they need to make smarter decisions and the tools required to take action to improve the customer experience. From parcel to freight and cart to door, Convey helps the world’s largest retailers reduce costs, improve visibility and transform the delivery experience into their next competitive advantage. Founded in 2013, Convey is based in Austin, Texas. Learn more at: www.getconvey.com.