Product should report to customer support.

Product should report to customer support.

Steve Jobs said it in 1997, answering a critic at Apple’s developer conference: “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.”

In a store, that’s already how it works. It just isn’t on the org chart. Appriss Retail found 81% of US return dollars come back through a store, including 29% that were bought online. So the floor team hears why it didn’t work before anyone at head office does.

In 2023 Coresight asked US apparel brands and retailers why online clothes come back. Size and fit came top, named by 53%.

Size and fit is decided in the sample room. It gets reported at the returns desk, at six on a Saturday, to the person with the least power to change it.

Flip it. The return reasons, the fitting room counts, what people asked for that wasn’t there: all of it to the people who make the product, every week, with an answer owed back to the floor.

The store has been running your customer research for free. Is anyone upstairs reading it?

Let’s talk about how. DM me if you want to work through it for your stores.