Jupiter Media Metrix has predicted that consumer online returns will top $5.8 billion worth of goods by 2005.
Analysts for the market research firm advised Web retailers to make their returns process more cost-effective. The analysts suggested firms use systems that collect customer data to understand better why products are being returned.
JMM also advised companies to maintain policies that treat all returns uniformly or they could compromise the quality of data collected.
In addition, the report found that effective data collection could help firms identify negative trends connected to returns and help them limit the number of future returns on similar products.
