Return to Sender

[00:00:00] It is Thursday, January 4th. Today, check your warehouses. Your online holiday shoppers are returning way more of your products than you think. In the battle of same day versus next day delivery, turns out neither really matters

[00:00:15] at all and Snapchat's new partnership brings visibility to a huge part of the smart TV world. At the short show today, I'm Tod Maffin. That's ahead. Today in Digital Marketing. A strange new trend appears to have emerged over the holiday season and it's not great

[00:00:31] for people who sell physical products online. A new report by Coldwell Banker and Optoro Sheds Light on a growing challenge, Returns. With e-commerce sales expected to hit about $275 billion this year, Returns are predicted to account for a staggering $82 billion. This is a substantial increase from previous years.

[00:00:55] People are feeling the impact nearly 9 out of 10 have revised their return policies with 44% increasing return and restocking fees and 40% have expanded return drop-off locations. The cost of Returns has skyrocketed by 50% compared to 2018, now averaging 27% of the purchase price.

[00:01:19] This rise is significant enough to potentially half a product's sales margin. But there's more than just financial cost. The report highlights an environmental concern. Returned goods contribute about 9.5 billion pounds of waste to landfills annually. Retailers are adapting to these challenges.

[00:01:37] Companies like H&M and Amazon have modified their return policies, often incorporating fees. So while returns spike and online retailers obsess over service improvements like returns and same-day versus next-day delivery, turns out those latter options may not be as valued by consumers as expected.

[00:02:00] A recent Forrester report found that while 75% of US shoppers prioritize free shipping, only 20% consider next-day or same-day delivery crucial in their shopping decisions. Surprisingly, 47% said that same-day delivery doesn't influence their choice of retailer or brand at all.

[00:02:22] Instead, Forrester highlights more cost-effective alternatives like buy online, pick up in store, curbside pickup and drive-through options. These services are gaining interest. 22% of consumers now opt to pick up in the store. 27% prefer curbside pickup. Despite these findings, major retailers like Target, Walmart and Amazon continue to enhance

[00:02:45] their same-day delivery capabilities. Amazon in particular has attributed its success in this area to investments in regional operations and an increase in same-day delivery facilities. Overall delivery times have improved, with the average time from order placement to final delivery now around four days.

[00:03:09] To social media now and Snapchat, which this week announced a new measurement partnership with Samba TV. Samba should give SNAPs advertisers in the entertainment sector a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of their in-app campaigns. Samba has some impressive reach into most of the major TV platforms, Wald Gardens.

[00:03:28] They claim to be connected to 48 million smart TV devices, which lets them tie activity to free-to-air cable and streaming content. This partnership takes effect from today and SNAP's advertising partners will soon have access to these enhanced measurement tools.

[00:03:44] Are you wary of using AI in your content production process? Pamela Wilson, author of the Master Content Books, looks at it this way. You're the head chef. AI is your sous chef. Busy professional chefs have sous chefs on their team who prepare ingredients ahead of time.

[00:04:00] The chef takes their work, combines and seasons it, and serves it up with flair. Professional chefs don't expect their sous chefs' work to be ready to plate, and we shouldn't expect AI-generated content to be ready to publish. AI output is a starting point for content marketing.

[00:04:17] A pre-prepped ingredient, not the whole meal. Don't be wary about using AI to jumpstart your content production process. It's not going anywhere, so learn how to use it to get real results with your 2024 content. Learn more when you read Pamela's newly updated Master Content Books at mastercontentbooks.com.

[00:04:38] That's mastercontentbooks.com. Eight of you showed up to watch on the Twitch stream to watch me put the show together, so now they have a deeper insight into how the sausage is made. Actually, you know what?

[00:04:57] What they have a deeper insight into is how much time I spend agonizing over song selection at the end. So I hope you like this song because it took me forever to pick. Also my computer and I have been having a little disagreement about who's boss.

[00:05:11] I plugged in a network attached storage and everything went to hell. It's possible my computer will be having a mental health day tomorrow, in which case we will be doing a long-form marketing scientist interview. Either way, I will see you tomorrow. Thanks for listening. .