Self-Service Return Kiosks

Online shopping continues to increase in popularity and, without the ability to try before buying, customers often need to make returns. Consumers made an estimated $428 billion of product returns to retailers in 2020, equating to 10.6% of U.S. retail sales. The financial impact is significant as each retail return costs approximately 59% of the item’s purchase price.
In partnership with Doddle and Inmar Post-Purchase Solutions, KIOSK offers a retail returns solution that improves customer experience and frees up retail staff.

Automated returns kiosks let customers spend less time standing in lines waiting to physically return purchases, which means they can spend more time in store shopping. Service desks are areas of pressure for stores, where long lines can build and customers become impatient. Providing a self-service product return kiosk for drop-offs enables customer return transactions to skip the line, save time, and maintain social distancing behavior.

A returns kiosk enables retailers to:

• Reduce line time for customers, for added convenience and more time to shop
• Reassure customers of return success with simple customer journey and digital receipts
• Create positive brand associations: easy-to-use tech solves a frustrating problem
• Save time for staff members with fewer over-the-counter returns
• Drive additional footfall into store without overloading store staff
• Increase insight via data capture into who is returning, what is coming back, and why

Retail operators should also see this as an opportunity to drive footfall and better understand customer returns behavior to improve marketing. Using a product return system kiosk allows retailers to accurately capture returns data as well as streamline returns operations and cost.

Customer Return Journey

• The customer buys an item online and decides to return it
• Customer comes into the store and starts their return on the kiosk
• Customer scans a QR code sent when return was initiated
• Customer selects the items they want to return on screen
• Customer selects the reason for return
• Customer drops item into the drop-box and continues shopping
• Customer receives an email with information to track their return

Retail Staff Journey

• Staff receives an alert via their staff application to say kiosk is almost full
• Staff member unlocks the unit with passcode and retrieves returned items
• Staff member checks each item and confirms via handheld if it is fit for refund
• Staff member puts the item back into the correct part of the store for restocking or rerouting back to a distribution center

We can provide retail operators with actionable data to support the business case for self-service returns, and help you better understand the best user experience for your customers and staff.

Access insights into:

• Customer satisfaction
• Staff satisfaction
• Transaction time
• Transaction volume
• Reason codes

Additional automation opportunities for retailers include bill payment kiosks, endless aisle kiosks, and digital signage.