Online shopping continues to grow in Australia with an estimated 20% of total retail sales taking place online. Convenience is a driving factor as customers expect a seamless experience from purchase through to product returns.

Real-time tracking is a popular feature of many returns management solutions that supports full visibility across the returns process for customers and retailers.

In this article, we’ll explain how real-time tracking works and why it’s an essential feature for seamless ecommerce returns.

Explaining real-time tracking for returns

Real-time tracking is a system that provides instant updates on the status of a package. It is used to enhance visibility for orders being shipped to customers, as well as items being returned to retailers.

The best ecommerce return management solutions are equipped to handle real-time tracking, with features such as:

• Carrier integrations: Most of the tracking data comes directly from the courier, so it’s important that your ecommerce returns solution can integrate directly with those systems.
• Barcode & RFID scanning: Barcodes and RFID technology are key for automating the returns process and providing accurate inventory updates to retailers.
• Live status updates: Status updates keep customers and retailers informed at every step with alerts sent for items in transit, received and refunded.

How real-time tracking helps retailers

An obvious benefit to real-time tracking is knowing where a package is at any given time. But beyond this, there are a range of other ways the software can support retailers, including:

• Reducing support tickets: When customers can track the progress of their return, they are less likely to submit support queries relating to lost items or missing refunds. 
• Accurate inventory: Retailers can maximise sales with better visibility on returned items in-transit and predict when they will be back in stock.
• Optimise staffing: Retailers can predict when high volumes of returns are likely to arrive, helping them ensure adequate staffing to efficiently replenish stock and pack new orders.
• Directly compare couriers: Fast shipping is a key priority for many retailers. Real-time tracking can help you monitor and compare the speed of different carriers, which helps you find the most reliable partner for your business. 

Altogether, these benefits can translate into a better customer experience, increased efficiency and maximised revenues.

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The best ecommerce returns solution for real-time tracking

Since many of the popular ecommerce return solutions offer real-time tracking, how can you tell which one is best for your brand? We recommend comparing the complete customer experience and assessing how much risk your chosen returns solution places on you, the retailer.

For example, real-time tracking is an essential part of our instant refund and exchange service. We protect retailers by taking on the full cost (and risk) of every refund, but this only works if we can trust customers to do the right thing with their returns.

We use real-time tracking as part of our enforcement strategy. A customer typically has 7-10 days to initiate their return, which we can check with barcode and RFID scanning at any of our 100+ carrier partners worldwide.

Our trust-based system is designed to give customers the best experience, while technical features like real-time tracking help us guarantee retailers will receive their products back.

Other features that make us one of the best ecommerce return solutions include:

• Branded return portals: Giving your customers a returns experience curated by your brand.
• Compatible with every ecommerce platform: We integrate seamlessly with every major ecommerce platform such as Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce and more. 
• Analytics and insights: Our comprehensive data dashboard provides in-depth insights into customer behaviour, repurchase trends, return patterns and more.

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How does real-time tracking work with Refundid?

Every returns management solution will have their own method for real-time tracking. Here is how it works at Refundid.

For retailers 

Retailers can access real-time tracking through their dashboard with data updated instantly as progress is made. This is where you can track everything from what inventory is being returned to reasons for return, repurchase behaviour and more.

For customers

Customers can access real-time tracking via the Refundid app. Each time the status of their returned item changes, they receive a notification direct to their device.

Refundid is a modern returns management solution operating in Australia, the US and worldwide. We aim to reimagine the returns experience by making it simpler for customers and smarter for retailers. Book a demo to explore the key features of our ecommerce returns solution.

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