When I order something online I feel pretty accomplished.
This feeling usually comes about when I order something that I really need, or something that I have been waiting to purchase for a long time. I love it when things arrive in the mail for me. There is nothing quite like the sensation of opening a package that you have been expecting. The smell of plastic and toxic fumes wafting in the air as a smile grows on your face, whatever it is that you needed has finally arrived, and it arrived to your front porch.
The ability to have your items arrive to your house without you having to go anywhere or do anything out of the ordinary to obtain the product (and maybe you didn’t even need to put on pants to get your things) is a true mark of luxury.
The fact that you can buy something on your computer and have it arrive to your house is really something special.
When a package arrives and your product doesn’t meet your expectation, the magic is cracked and it can be upsetting.
What can make this experience even more upsetting is when you have to pay the company you ordered this product from to be able to return it… Yes, I am talking about needing to pay for return shipping.
When a company forces their consumer to pay for return shipping it can make ordering products from them seem much less desirable. Part of ordering things online is the satisfaction of knowing that you are under no strict obligation to keep whatever you are (partially) blindly buying. Needing to pay for return shipping breaks this sense of comfort and safety because it turns ordering online into something unsafe, “what happens if I don’t like what I ordered?!?”
Whenever I buy online, I am more likely to re-order from a place that does not charge for return shipping. I am more keen on the idea of not having to pay for return shipping than I am to the idea that the product will be something so amazing I will not have to worry about returning it, or the shipping to do so.
When you ask your customers to pay for return shipping, just know, that you are asking for a lot more than just their money at a post office.
You are asking for something they may just not be capable of giving you… Commitment.
