Returns can be a major expense for all retail businesses—especially eCommerce businesses. In this episode of eCommerce Unscripted, we address all things returns. Host Sam Greenspan is joined by two WooCommerce experts: Tabitha Turton, a GoDaddy Product Manager, and Marcus Burnette, a WooCommerce care team member for GoDaddy, to discuss product returns.

The panel shares statistics and anecdotes on just how much returns can eat into eCommerce margins, what motivates customers to make returns, and how many customers are making returns.

From there, they cover several strategies to help with returns, including setting up a return policy, how to keep returns easy on both customers and merchants, the Returns and Warranty Requests WooCommerce extension, using pick lists and address validation, the WooCommerce Product Reviews Pro extension, better images, and return window and cost optimization.

Finally, in the Q&A, the panel addresses whether using too many hooks can slow down a WooCommerce site and what to look for in choosing a marketing agency.

Check out GoDaddy’s Managed WordPress Ecommerce hosting which includes many of the premium extensions discussed in this episode for free! https://www.godaddy.com/hosting/ecommerce-hosting

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Extensions and services referenced (* - included in the GoDaddy Managed WordPress Ecommerce bundle)

Returns and Warranty Requests* - https://woocommerce.com/products/warranty-requests/

WooCommerce Print Invoices & Packing Lists* - https://woocommerce.com/products/print-invoices-packing-lists/

WooCommerce Product Reviews Pro* - https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-product-reviews-pro/

Postcode/Address Validation* - https://woocommerce.com/products/postcodeaddress-validation/

WooCommerce 360º Image* - https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-360-image/

Strategy of only charging for refunds - https://www.loopreturns.com/blog/should-online-brands-offer-free-return-shipping/

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Sources for statistics:

https://www.invespcro.com/blog/ecommerce-product-return-rate-statistics/

Industry benchmark: 15-40% of products ordered online returned (versus ~9% of things bought in-store)

67% will check returns policy before making purchase

92% will buy from a store again if return process is easy

https://www.salecycle.com/blog/featured/ecommerce-retu...

A solid checkout flow is a crucial step in getting customers to complete purchases—eCommerce businesses can improve conversion rate by more than one-third by optimizing checkout flow. In this episode, host Sam Greenspan is joined by two WooCommerce experts: Simon Porter, a GoDaddy support engineer, and Léa Oriol, a GoDaddy product manager, to discuss checkout flow optimization.

The panel shares statistics and anecdotes on pet peeves with online checkouts, checkout features that improve the odds of a sale, reasons for cart abandonment, and website trust indicators.

From there, they cover several strategies to help with checkout flow: Reducing unexpected costs and checkout roadblocks like account creation, streamlining forms and coupons, offering customers estimated delivery dates, adding payment gateways to a site, and diagnosing checkout flow issues with Google Analytics Pro.

Finally, in the Q&A, the panel addresses how to set up products that customers can purchase one time or via a recurring subscription, and the most important metrics for a WooCommerce store to track.

Check out GoDaddy’s Managed WordPress Ecommerce hosting which includes many of the premium extensions discussed in this episode for free! https://www.godaddy.com/hosting/ecommerce-hosting

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Extensions and services referenced (* - included in the GoDaddy Managed WordPress Ecommerce bundle)

Jetpack - https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/

Checkout Field Editor* - https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-checkout-field-editor/

WooCommerce Social Login* - https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-social-login/

URL Coupons* - https://woocommerce.com/products/url-coupons/

WooCommerce Shipping Estimate - https://www.skyverge.com/product/woocommerce-shipping-estimates/

WooCommerce Lead Time - https://barn2.co.uk/wordpress-plugins/woocommerce-lead-time/

WooCommerce Google Analytics Pro* - https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-google-analytics-pro/

WooCommerce Subscriptions* - https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-subscriptions/

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Submit questions for future episodes

https://forms.office.com/r/SFk0b9Xjg5

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Sources for statistics:

https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate

Optimizing checkout process can increase conversion rate by 35%

Top reasons customers abandon carts

Roughly 70% of carts are abandoned<...

The online shopping journey continues to become more personalized—leading to a better experience for customers and more lucrative results for merchants. In this episode, host Sam Greenspan is joined by two WooCommerce experts: Tamara Zuk, a GoDaddy support engineer, and Benjamin Green, a GoDaddy support specialist, to discuss personalization with WooCommerce.

The panel shares statistics and anecdotes on good versus bad uses of personalization, the tradeoff of giving up personal data for a more customized shopping experience, and what the near future may hold for personalization.

From there, they cover several strategies to help with personalization for a WooCommerce site including: Showcasing cross-sells and recently-viewed products, targeted in-cart cross-selling, automated emails, retargeting ads based on shopper behavior, and on-site recommendations.

Finally, in the Q&A, the panel addresses whether it’s possible to use WooCommerce as a CRM tool and whether it’s worth learning to code to manage a WooCommerce store.

Check out GoDaddy’s Managed WordPress Ecommerce hosting which includes many of the premium extensions discussed in this episode for free! https://www.godaddy.com/hosting/ecommerce-hosting

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Extensions and services referenced (* - included in the GoDaddy Managed WordPress Ecommerce bundle)

Cart Add-ons* - https://woocommerce.com/products/cart-add-ons/

AutomateWoo* - https://automatewoo.com/

Recommendation Engine - https://woocommerce.com/products/recommendation-engine/

Product Recommendations for WooCommerce - https://woocommerce.com/products/product-recommendations/

The toilet seat tweet - https://twitter.com/GirlFromBlupo/status/982156453396996096

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Submit questions for future episodes

https://forms.office.com/r/SFk0b9Xjg5

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Sources for statistics:

https://www.coredna.com/blogs/the-importance-of-personalization-in-ecommerce

94% of companies say personalization is critical to success, but three-quarters marketers struggle to do it

Adding personalization to eCommerce increases sales by 7.8% initially, longer term 19%

75% of customers like it when brands personalize promotional messages

56% more likely to use online retailer with "good personalized experience"

https://c.smarterhq.com/resources/Privacy-Personalization-Report.pdf

63% will stop purchasing from company after creepy interaction

Creepiest tactics: AI chat popups, push notifications on behavior, ads with products or brands, being targeted too many tim...