$79.6 Social Commerce: Small but Rapidly Growing Segment U.S. retail social commerce sales ($ billions)
also experimented with ways to rein in returns abuse, including analyzing data to identify fraud and then charging extra to shoppers who abuse return policies. 9 Handle Fraudulent Orders ASAP Along with sales, fraudulent orders tend to increase during the holidays. At Burlap & Barrel, for instance, the customer support team worked hard to verify potentially fraudulent orders, but didn’t have a great way to do it. So, the company implemented an automatic order cancellation solution that cancels orders flagged for fraud risks. For example, fraudulent orders often come through one source in rapid succession, such as a new affiliate marketing partner that generates a handful of fraudulent orders. Automatically canceling the fraudulent orders saves time and helps avoid costly chargebacks. 10 Offer Options Consumers want the ability to make decisions about their orders. This can include multiple delivery options, the ability to consolidate orders and reduce delivery trips, and the ability to pick up orders in a store, among other choices. “It’s about choices and consumers will shop based on choices and values by that brand,” Jonkman says. 11 Learn to Operate with Uncertainty It’s impossible to predict exactly what holiday season 2024 will look like. Supply chain-dependent companies must be able to operate with some uncertainty. “They can’t know for sure how demand will rise and fall, especially during busy seasons like the holidays,” Romano says. “But they can—and should—prepare in advance for influxes in demand during busy times.” n
$67.3
$56.2
$45.7
$36.6
$27.0
3.4% 4.0% 4.4% 4.7% 5.0% 5.2% 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Share of total retail ecommerce sales
Data for 2021–25 are projected. Source: eMarketer
6 Communicate With Business Partners While communication among shippers, carriers, and freight forwarders is essential at all times, it’s becoming even more so currently, given the likelihood of disruptions continuing into the holiday season. “Companies need to be very clear with how they see their forecasts changing,” Bourke says. He advises companies to provide forecasts early and often to all logistics and transportation providers, so they can safeguard space in their networks. 7 Monitor Amazon Policies Companies that sell on Amazon need to consider the behemoth’s changing policies as they prepare for the 2024 holidays. For instance, the fees regarding low inventory and aged inventory are designed to prompt sellers to manage their stock and sell-through effectively. “Amazon prefers items that don’t go out of stock,” says Phillips. Supply Chain by Amazon—a fully automated set of supply chain services that helps sellers get products from manufacturers to customers across the globe—continues to expand. Among other functions,
this service allows companies to ship inventory directly from overseas manufacturing into bulk storage, where it’s automatically pulled into fulfillment centers as needed. Though “it’s hard to say if this development is good or bad,” notes Phillips, it is worth tracking for holiday 2024. 8 Nail Down Reverse Logistics While returns can feel like a necessary evil, a smooth returns process can build brand perception and inspire goodwill and further purchases. Best practices include clarifying return policies and including a link to the policy in a website footer, notes Wicky. Given the costs of handling returns, many retailers are testing different tactics to try to reduce the overall volume of returns. For instance, some are shortening returns periods or forcing shoppers to pay for shipping when returning certain items. Over the past few years, some retailers have
March 2024 • Inbound Logistics 33
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