How to Create Prepaid Return Shipping Labels for Your Online Store
According to statistics, nearly a third of all online purchases end up being returned for one reason or another. Even if you sell high-quality products and provide great customer experience, you will still have to deal with purchase returns every now and then because sometimes they have nothing to do with the store and everything to do with the customer or even a third party.
Although it is the customer who wants to return the purchase, it is your task to take care of the logistics. For most customers, the chance to return a purchase with ease and for free is an important aspect of a positive customer experience. Even if a particular product wasn’t a good fit and the customer decided to return it, they are likely to give you another chance and order something else from your store if you make the process of returning easier and don’t charge them for it.
And that’s exactly why you need return shipping labels. A return shipping label is a prepaid shipping label with your address that enables customers to return their purchase easily and hassle-free. In addition to building customer loyalty, return shipping labels have a few more benefits for e-commerce business owners.
First, when you provide return shipping labels you have the freedom to choose the shipping carrier and can ensure that there are no mistakes in the return address. Second, you can reduce the shipping costs and choose the cheapest shipping option available. In other words, you can have complete control over the whole return process and tailor it to your liking. Great news for control freaks (and most business owners are control freaks to at least some degree, since it usually comes with the job).
How to create a prepaid return shipping label? Actually, it’s no different from creating labels for orders you ship. You just need to swap the sender’s address and the recipient’s address so that you become the recipient. There are two main ways to create a shipping label online: you can log in to your USPS/FedEx/UPS account and create a prepaid shipping label there or you can use a third-party service such as PostageMaker.
With PostageMaker, creating a return shipping label is as easy as 1–2–3: all you need to do is enter the sender’s address and the recipient’s address (don’t forget that you are the recipient), select one of the three postal services (USPS, UPS or FedEx) and choose the shipping option according to your budget. The postage is charged from your account in the PostageMaker system, so you need to add founds to your account beforehand via a credit/debit card or PayPal.
Well, the label is generated and paid for, how do you get it to the customer? It’s actually very easy. You can download the label as PDF and e-mail it to your customer with detailed instructions. They will need to print it (on plain paper and using a regular printer, no special paper or printer required), paste the label on the return package and mail it back to you.
Another way to provide your customers with a return shipping label is to generate it beforehand and include it in the original package. In this case, you need to create a scan-based return label so that you don’t have to pay for the label right away; you will only be charged for the postage if and when the label is scanned into the mailstream. This is a money- and nerve-saving solution since you don’t have to prepay for return labels you mail with orders and then request refunds when customers don’t use them.
If you make returning products easy, it will boost your reputation even when customers choose to return a product. By giving them this option, you demonstrate that you’re trustworthy and reliable. This will encourage customers to leave more positive feedback and order from you again even though they returned the first order.
