Bonus Insights: Tony Sciarrotta - Executive Director & Publisher, Reverse Logistics Association
)
In 2016, Tony Sciarrotta was appointed as Executive Director to revitalise the Reverse Logistics Association. He has held various industry positions, including 15 years in returns management at Philips, where he developed new reverse logistics strategies and worked with retail partners and industry groups on best practices.
Tony has become an evangelist for improving the customer experience to reduce returns and their associated costs. Today, he is considered a subject matter expert in reverse logistics, and speaks for the industry at conferences all over the world.
WATCH his DELIVER Europe 2023 Keynote: Embrace Circularity, Exceed Customer Expectations, Reduce Returns Pain
Key Fact: 48% of UK shoppers returned online purchases at least ‘some of the time' in 2023 (Statista)
The Escalating Returns Crisis
“We have created a culture of entitlement, because returns are easy and free. And that is now the benchmark to be a successful e-commerce retailer. It's a consumer culture where people will order ten garments online, and send nine back. And that's frightening. It's averaging over 50% in the apparel industry. So what's going right is e-commerce business is booming. That's exciting. But what's going wrong is no-one's fixed the returns problem at the front end.”
Changing the Mindset
“The solution involves things like making sizes consistent around the world for clothing and shoes, and making electronics easy to use. The two-dimensional experience that we have online has to be matched by the three-dimensional experience of opening the carton at home. Does it fit? Does it look like what I expected?
When many manufacturers and retailers check the products on return, so many of them are touched, but there's nothing wrong with them. In apparel, you could put it back on the shelf. In electronics, it's now used, it cannot be sold as new. So returns are growing as fast as e-commerce is moving.”
Locating Liability
“Where does the liability belong? Does it belong with the manufacturer? Or with the retailer? That's a double-edged sword. There are examples in the States where computer monitors have a disposal fee that the states are putting in their budgets, supposedly, to help the landfills where the monitors are being dumped.
In the automotive industry, tires have a disposal fee. Oil has a disposal fee. When you take your car in for service, they tell you it's going to cost $100 to get rid of these tires. We don't see that as much in other industries. And maybe we should. But the excitement for a year from now is that in the States, the investment community is looking at ESG scores, they're looking at carbon footprints. And now people are going to start putting their money where their scores are.”
