51¿´Æ¬

51¿´Æ¬, A.K.A. Return to Origin remains one of the most frustrating and revenue-draining challenges for health and wellness e-commerce brands. They not only erode profits through reverse logistics costs but also weaken customer trust for personal care businesses.

The problem tends to worsen during promotional periods, when order volumes exceed and communication gaps lead to failed deliveries. According to Vision Research, the global health and wellness market was at $5.5K billion in 2023 and is expected to reach . 

This growth indicates both a rise in order volumes and 51¿´Æ¬s, making it more crucial for brands to optimize their returns management. In this article, we will discuss what 51¿´Æ¬s are, how they eat margins for personal wellness brands, and how modern logistics strategies can help reduce them effectively.

What is Return to Origin in Ecommerce?

Return to origin (or 51¿´Æ¬) is a popular term in the e-commerce space. It refers to undelivered orders that return to the warehouse. The delivery partner is unable to deliver the shipment to the customer either due to their unavailability or an incorrect address. After an 51¿´Æ¬ is incurred, here’s what happens to the package:

1. The courier service tries to redeliver the shipment at least 3 times.
2. The delivery partner calls the customer and asks for a convenient time for redelivery.
3. The courier sends text messages through SMS and WhatsApp to know whether the customers would like to accept or decline the shipment. 
4. An 51¿´Æ¬ is regenerated if the customer declines the order because they are unreachable during the three attempts.
5. Then the shipment is sent back to the seller or the warehouse.

The Common Causes of 51¿´Æ¬s in the Health & Wellness Industry

Customers return shipments due to several reasons. Here are some common causes:

1. Incorrect and inaccurate addresses often lead to 51¿´Æ¬s.
2. Impulsive COD orders for health and wellness products lead to 51¿´Æ¬s
3. Late deliveries lead to order cancellations and returns to the seller.
4. Minor defects in health products are promptly refused, leading to 51¿´Æ¬s
5. Close-to-expiry stocks or substitute variants are returned to the origin.
6. Customer unavailability can also result in 51¿´Æ¬s.

Effective Strategies to Reduce 51¿´Æ¬s for Ecommerce Health & Wellness Brands

Excessive 51¿´Æ¬s can negatively impact a brand’s reputation and shake customer confidence. Here are 9 strategies to reduce 51¿´Æ¬s most effectively for e-commerce health and wellness brands.

1. Accurate Address Verification and Validation

Inaccurate address is one of the most common 51¿´Æ¬ reasons that health and wellness brands face. One out of five orders goes back to the warehouse due to incomplete or incorrect addresses, adding extra shipping costs and reducing customer satisfaction. By ensuring the customer information and address are accurate, brands can minimize 51¿´Æ¬ percentages. 

They can implement a mechanism to automatically and accurately verify customer information on the checkout pages. Automate the address verification process and replace manual verifications. By using an address verification API to auto-fill addresses and displaying address information on the tracking page, sellers can perform validation in case the address is incorrect.

2. Implement Smart Delivery Date Prediction

Customers are curious about a promised delivery date before making a purchase decision. An intelligent delivery date prediction allows brands to set clear expectations for their customers. EDDs are calculated based on a combination of factors - shipping history, carrier performance, destination, weather, and traffic conditions.

Automated delivery dates can be displayed on various pages on the website to prevent 51¿´Æ¬s and missed deliveries. Smart delivery date prediction conveys the order delivery status, changes, and delays. It can prepare the customer beforehand about the parcel’s time of arrival.

3. Leverage Carrier Intelligence for Optimal Shipping

Leveraging carrier intelligence can make a big difference while handling 51¿´Æ¬s. Brands can make data-driven decisions based on NDR response rates, delivery attempts, and the frequency of returns. For example, health and wellness brands need to deliver perishable goods and urgent health products on the first attempt. 

By implementing predictive insights, merchants can flag high-priority shipments and allocate carriers that can deliver them on the initial attempts. Moreover, carrier intelligence can help health brands select carriers with a track record in health and wellness product delivery.

4. Improve Packaging to Prevent Damages

Goods often get damaged in transit and are returned to the seller. Brands and delivery companies cannot guarantee 100% damage-free deliveries, but they can offer better packaging and labelling. Using cushioning in boxes, filling gaps with dunnage, and labeling fragile items specifically can prevent damage to packages headed to the customer. 

Limiting damages during delivery decreases the likelihood of returns. Ensuring safety and carefully handling packages is also crucial to prevent damage. The labelling can indicate to delivery partners about the nature of the material and allow them to deliver it successfully, avoiding any dents, spillage, and breakage.

5. Improve Customer Communication Throughout the Shipping Process

For health and nutrition products, even a small hiccup or a minor lapse in the shipping process can cost an 51¿´Æ¬. It is due to the shelf life and urgency of the products. Proactive communication can make all the difference in slashing 51¿´Æ¬s for time-sensitive shipments. It amplifies trust and gives customers clarity in the return process. 

When customers receive real-time updates of a reattempt and clear heads-ups about a failed delivery, it prevents confusion and ensures alignment between the customer and the business. Communication throughout the delivery process aligns the brand with the customer. It helps reduce 51¿´Æ¬s through real-time adjustments with one-to-one communication.

6. Identify High-Risk Customers and Adjust Strategy

High-risk customers in the health and wellness industry include first-time buyers, COD customers, shoppers in pincodes with high 51¿´Æ¬s, and low NDR responding customers. Brands must identify these customers as they miss most deliveries, disavow orders, or remain unresponsive. Sellers can then flag those orders before the dispatch stage and communicate with the courier to handle them strategically.

They can ask for order confirmations, communicate NDRs promptly, and have caps on specific SKUs. By doing this, health and wellness businesses can tackle high-risk customers and 51¿´Æ¬ triggers more effectively.

7. Offer Flexible Delivery Options 

Health and wellness shoppers who purchase supplements, personal care, and medical essentials have specific shipping expectations. Many go with COD options, while others have urgent needs and choose express delivery options. 

By offering flexible delivery options like next-day, same-day delivery, express delivery, and COD, health and wellness merchants can reduce order cancellations and rejections, ultimately lowering 51¿´Æ¬ percentages. 

Buyers can choose when and how they want to receive the product and be in complete control of the shipping process. Flexible delivery options can also include convenient time-slots and weekend delivery windows.

8. Encourage COD to Prepaid Conversion

Delivery of skincare serums, protein bars, and diabetic care products is expected promptly by customers. However, sometimes customers forget they placed an order or change their minds, particularly if they opted via COD. That’s why brands need to implement a system to nudge customers to switch from COD to prepaid. 

This nudge acts as both a reminder to the customer of their delivery (so they can cancel it if they don’t want it), or as a means to extract online payment from them, thereby reducing the chances of a failed delivery. This confirmation can also fast-forward the fulfillment process and prevent items from going to waste, as some health and wellness products have a shelf life.

9. Track and Analyze 51¿´Æ¬ Data to Optimize Future Deliveries

51¿´Æ¬s are inevitable in the ecommerce space, but a very effective way to stop them is by tracking and analyzing return data. The data helps you uncover reasons why certain SKUs are returned to origin more than others, specific pincodes showing 51¿´Æ¬ rates, and delivery partner delays causing 51¿´Æ¬s.

Because health and wellness products are time-sensitive and need-based, analyzing return data is a critical practice. Sellers can refine packaging, payment modes, and product descriptions based on customer behaviour and 51¿´Æ¬ reasons.

Achieve 40% 51¿´Æ¬ Reduction with ClickPost’s Returns Management

ClickPost is a SaaS logistics solutions provider that helps ecommerce companies deliver excellent post-purchase experiences to their customers. It offers integrations with 500+ carriers, a unified dashboard, real-time tracking, predictive analytics, NDR management, automated carrier allocation, and label generation to streamline logistics operations. 

ClickPost’s platform automates NDR journeys and last mile delivery processes. It provides a unified dashboard where ecommerce businesses can track delivery exceptions, the causes, and the real-time statuses of every failed and resolved delivery. The platform enhances customer experiences with ML-based NDR management. 

NDR resolutions are identified early and promptly resolved in minutes. ClickPost has recently introduced AI-powered voice assistance, Parth. It interacts with customers and provides NDR resolutions in a natural human-like voice.

Bottom Line

51¿´Æ¬s continue to shake the nerves of health and wellness ecommerce brands. Every failed order becomes a lost opportunity when brands cannot mitigate poor delivery communication, incorrect addresses, and untimely shipping. For e-commerce sellers, tackling 51¿´Æ¬s strategically is unquestionable as it impacts revenue and brand image.  

They rely on modern logistics technology such as automated NDR management, AI-powered customer interaction, and flexible carrier management to effectively reduce 51¿´Æ¬s. ClickPost is a leader in logistics automation, helping health and personal care brands reduce 51¿´Æ¬s by 40% with its intelligent offerings. If you’re planning to transform your post purchase experience, it's time to optimize with ClickPost.