Late-Stage Order Cancellation Improves Customer Experience & Environmental Impact of eCommerce

Online shopping returns are a growing challenge for retailers around the world, accounting for over $400 billion in lost sales for U.S. retailers in the year 2020 alone, according to the National Retail Federation. Many Australian retailers are also seeing a significant portion of their online sales being returned by customers after shipping.

With late-stage order cancellations becoming a growing issue for Australian retailers trying to balance customer demands against the capabilities of current systems, Manhattan Associates’ new late-stage order cancellation solution means orders can be cancelled up to the point of manifested/loaded status.

This process allows brands to offer an extended window of opportunity for customer cancellation, preventing unwanted shipments and costly returns, both financially, and environmentally.

"Customers often change their minds. It is part of doing business. How a company wishes to react should be a business decision, not simply constrained by a retailer’s system capabilities," said Raghav Sibal, Managing Director, ANZ, Manhattan Associates.

"Previously, when customers decided to cancel an order, they might not be able to depending on how quickly the order was dropped to the warehouse. In most cases, the order could not be cancelled once it was allocated, limiting the timeframe customers could change their mind before an unwanted shipment was sent on its way," Sibal continued.

Manhattan’s new late-stage order cancellation capability allows retailers to amend and cancel orders right up to the moment the truck leaves. This gives retailers more flexibility in handling late-stage cancellations, enhances the customer experience and negates the costly carbon footprint often associated with returns processes.

"Retail systems should not restrict consumer behaviour, so we’ve introduced the ability to cancel orders in our Warehouse Management System (WMS) much later in the fulfilment lifecycle. Not only does that improve customer satisfaction, but it also reduces shipping waste and the unwanted carbon footprint associated returns," Sibal added.

The new late-stage order cancellation capabilities build on Manhattan Associates’ existing digital self-service capabilities, which allow customers to cancel items being shipped to their address from a distribution centre (DC) or a store without reaching out to a contact centre.

"We’ve all been in a position where we’d like to be able to amend or cancel an online order, but the ‘point of no return’ or ‘remorse period’ has been reached. When these situations occur, it causes friction and frustration for the customer who has to return the item, not to mention the time and cost for the retailer, who will often have to absorb the shipping, handling and environmental costs of the return.

“With Manhattan’s latest order cancellation capabilities, all these issues can be resolved at source, making for happier customers, better margins for the retailer and lesser impact on the environment – a triple threat of benefits that everyone can get behind,” finished Sibal.