How Aila Can Help with Fraud and Loss Prevention for Retailers with Automated Returns

In today’s fast-paced retail landscape, managing returns has become a significant challenge for retailers. With a staggering $743 billion of merchandise returned in 2023, accounting for 14.5% of total retail sales, processing returns is not only time-consuming but also prone to errors and fraud. The National Retail Federation (NRF) estimates that fraudulent returns cost retailers $101 billion, representing 13.7% of total returns. This substantial impact on retailers’ bottom lines has prompted a search for innovative solutions to streamline the returns process while combating shrink effectively.

At Aila, we understand these challenges and have developed automated returns solutions to address them head-on. Our advanced vision technology and customizable workflows are designed to help enterprise retailers transform their returns process, reduce loss, and enhance customer satisfaction.

One of the key strengths of our self-service returns solutions is the ability to automate the entire returns process from start to finish through our unified platform. From customer identification and verification to product scanning, reason capture, and credit issuance, our complete returns solution simplifies the process, minimizes manual effort, and reduces errors that could otherwise lead to loss. 

By employing sophisticated fraud detection measures, such as customer verification through ID scanning, purchase history checks, and risk-scoring algorithms, we enable you to identify and prevent fraudulent returns more effectively. This multi-layered approach to fraud detection ensures that you can protect your assets while maintaining a seamless customer experience.

Real-time visibility and analytics are another game-changer that we bring to the table. Our self-service returns solutions provide you with valuable insights into the returns process, allowing you to track key metrics, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your operations. This level of transparency empowers you to stay ahead of potential issues and continuously improve your returns strategy.

We understand that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work in the ever-changing retail landscape, especially for enterprise retailers with many brick-and-mortar locations.  That’s why our retail solutions offer flexible deployment options and high customization capabilities. Whether it’s tailoring the returns process based on specific business rules, integrating with your existing systems, or aligning the user interface with your brand, we ensure that our solutions seamlessly fit into your unique ecosystem.

Looking towards the future, we remain committed to pushing the boundaries of innovation in the returns management space. Exciting developments on the horizon include 24-hour returns, advanced customer verification methods like biometrics, and the incorporation of computer vision recognition to further streamline the process.

As the retail industry continues to evolve, Aila stands ready to support you in your quest for efficient, secure, and customer-centric returns management. By embracing automation and leveraging cutting-edge technology, you can combat fraud, reduce loss, and elevate the customer experience to new heights. With our solutions, you can confidently navigate the challenges of returns management and emerge as a leader in the competitive retail landscape.

See how Rent the Runway transformed in-store returns with Aila’s Interactive Kiosk: