How SLAM Can Help with Returns
You can make your returns life easier when using SLAM before the boxes and mailers leave your facility.
Returns is part of the warehousing business, and becoming more so as ecommerce continues to explode. They are an increasingly larger part of the bottom line, either amounting to a large expense, or serving as a way to generate revenue and get ahead of the competition. There are many steps involved in maximizing your returns processes, and one of them begins with your outbound shipments in the SLAM (scan, label, apply, manifest) area.
This final 100 feet of your outbound operation is where you can begin prepping your facility for the inevitability of returns. Many large ecommerce retailers offer shining examples of this, starting with adding a perforated, pre-printed return label into outbound boxes and mailers. QVC, for instance, has a specialized label they require all partners add to outbound packages. LL Bean is another example. They add a pack slip into orders; as a customer, if you peel it off, they take the shipping return label cost out of the price of your return credit. So if you order a $50 shirt, for example, and use their label, you’ll get a $45 credit.
Other examples of convenient returns labels processes that originate in the outbound area include subscription clothing services, like Stitch Fix. They send you several garments each month in a box that includes a polybag and return label. There’s also a packing slip that allows you to keep or return any of the items you’d like. The company’s algorithm improves the more you use it.
To mimic some of these ecommerce and retailers, begin by adding in return labels to outbound boxes and mailers during the SLAM process, if the boxes are open. If not, another option is using an integrated pay slip return label, or a peelable label on the outside of the box.
A twist on this approach is to apply the same SLAM technology from outbound to receiving. For example: you can employ SLAM equipment on the receiving doc door to convey, scan, check weigh, and sort to the various workstations where operators are receiving and processing returns.
If you’re using SLAM in outbound, however, and working to make returns processing easier, there are a few other things to keep in mind. One is that your database must be set up correctly to not re-use LPSs/order numbers—these are the barcodes that track every box and mailer on the conveyor. For example, if a customer orders something today, and returns it a month from now, if they’ve reused the order number, it could cause confusion in processing. Instead, good data retention policies would not recycle LPNs over long periods of time, if ever.
If returns are part of your processes, consider SLAM as your path to optimization.
Source: Alex Kinkade, StreamTech
To learn more about MHI’s SLAM industry group: www.mhi.org/slam
More information about Scanning, Labeling, Applying, Manifesting:
How SLAM Helps Get the Order Right
Using Peak Season for Next Season
Podcast: Elevating Order Fulfillment: VRCs & SLAM Efficiency in the Modern Warehouse
How SLAM Saves on Shipping Costs
Prevent Chargebacks Via SLAM Equipment
