Use These Four Tips to Combat Bracketing at Your Online Store
Bracketing has become a common occurrence since the COVID-19 pandemic as online shopping exploded. We have now entered an endemic phase and the two-year surge in online sales has begun to subside, but despite this the popularity of online shopping has proven that it is here to stay.
In fact, according to eMarketer global ecommerce sales are expected to reach $5.5 trillion in 2022. What do the facts about bracketing tell us and how can you combat it at your online store? Read on to learn more.
Since online shopping doesn’t afford the ability to try on items like in store some customers have turned to bracketing as a remedy. Bracketing is the practice by consumers to purchase multiple of the same item in different sizes and colors to try on at home with the intention of returning those they do not intend to keep.
Unaddressed bracketing can cause serious problems for an online retailer by cutting into profit margins. Read on to learn some vital tips that will help you combat bracketing at your online store.
- Provide better product descriptions
When bracketing becomes a common occurrence at your online store a usual culprit is poor product descriptions which prevent your customers to purchase items with confidence.
Simply labeling a dress as a size 8 means little to a buyer. Oftentimes different stores and clothing manufactures will label their sizes differently and many times to a great degree. A size 6 at Torrid, a women’s plus size fashion store, could easily be a different size altogether than a size 6 at Macy’s.
The solution? Include comprehensive guides that list all average dimensions of your products including chest, waist, hips, leg length etc. Each brand should have a dedicated sizing guide to prevent doubt.
High quality photos of each product taken from different angles will also give your customer an idea of what they are purchasing.
- Augmented/Virtual reality changing rooms
With recent advancements in augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), online stores are using this innovation to creatively combat bracketing with virtual changing rooms. AR/VR enables customers to see what a clothing item would look like on them as if they were actually wearing it or what a piece of furniture would look like in their home.
AR/VR is the bridge that closes the gap between online and in-store shopping and gives customers the ability to purchase with confidence. Zeekit, an AR tech company, found brands using their technology reduced return rates from 38% to just 2%.
- Source data to identify overarching trends
Using data provided by an inventory management system (IMMs), you can identify trends in returns and exchanges. If a particular item is consistently being returned by your customers you can identify the reasoning and help to stop the returns from occurring.
Is the product description poor or incorrect? Is the sizing guide accurate? Does the item have high-quality product photos?
- Offer hassle-free, straightforward exchanges
Offering hassle-free and straightforward returns exchanges is key to offsetting the cost of return shipping. Instead of the customer simply returning an item without making a purchase, they are exchanging it for another which pads your ecommerce businesses bottom-line.
ReadyReturns can help!
An ecommerce software solution such as ReadyCloud can help combat bracketing and when returns and exchanges occur make them simple. Hassle-free returns and exchanges are vital to customer retention and secondary purchasing.
