ZigZag invited to speak on BBC Radio 5 Live

Any early risers listening to the radio on the way to work this morning may have heard ZigZag’s Founder and CEO, Al Gerrie.

With retail’s peak period kicking off last week with Black Friday sales, ZigZag was invited to speak to BBC Radio 5 Live presenter’s Sean Farrington and Louise Cooper, providing some insight into how this year’s shopping season is shaping up.

Featuring on this morning’s episode of Wake up to Money, Al commented “It’s been a record week for both retail and returns. We are seeing YOY eCommerce increasing by about 15% but returns are going up by as much as 20%…and in countries like Germany, return rates can be as high as 70%, [particularly] in women’s fashion and pure play retailers that don’t have stores.”

Commenting on how the retailers use the data ZigZag’s online portal collects, “[ZigZag has] information on who are the serial returners (which are the customers returning the most), potentially fraudulent customers, and which products are being returned more than they should be [and the reasons behind their return]. We are also working out how long products are spending off-sale, which is a critical metric for retailers. For instance if you had a retailer with a 25% return rate, a quarter of their stock of their stock is off-sale”. ZigZag’s returns management solution uses data analytics to get goods back on the shelves faster and sent to local marketplaces that offer them the best chance of resale.

As a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, ZigZag is committed to making the retail industry more sustainable, Al stated: “We are launching with a large number of retailers and carriers, some carbon neutral delivery solutions using electric vehicles. Consumers are becoming a lot more aware of the sustainable aspect of high return rates [so its important retailers continue to make their business methods more environmentally-friendly.”

You can listen to Al Gerrie’s segment on today’s Wake up to Money here, or for the full episode, visit the BBC website here.