Retail sales for the 2021 US holiday season will soar as brick-and-mortar shopping returns with a vengeance and ecommerce maintains double-digit growth rates.

Paid membership programs Amazon Prime and Walmart+ offered free return shipping on all orders, and six other retailers offered free return shipping for online orders either as part of free memberships or more generally to all customers. Free standard shipping without a minimum was also highly prized.

Paid membership took the number one spot, in part because of high customer demand for free shipping and returns. Overall, four of the top 10 most in-demand features fell under the paid membership category. Free return shipping, free shipping, free expedited shipping, and rewards/loyalty points were the four most valued features in the study.

However, consumers won’t relax their expectations for speedy shipping unprompted. Retailers can, however, take the time to explain potential delays and ensure their last-mile delivery and pickup options are up to snuff. (Hot). Trend 3: Making sustainability a core consideration. Consumer awareness of this issue was heightened during the pandemic, and it doesn’t show signs of easing.

More US adults strongly or somewhat agreed that Amazon is a good company for consumers and their go-to when looking for specific brands and fast shipping. That said, Walmart did have Amazon beat, by a small margin, in consumer sentiment about one area: the returns process. More like this:. Report: The Power of Amazon. Article: Why mobile retail apps are one key to holiday 2021’s winners and losers.

UK consumers covet fast shipping and easy returns. However, recent issues with fuel supply in the UK, plus a general dearth of delivery drivers, have caused delays and illustrate the fragility of the country’s fulfillment infrastructure. In an increasingly demanding market, customers might not tolerate these excuses for long.

Data suggests that improving the returns experience can have a positive effect on conversion. The Narvar study found that having to pay for return shipping would prevent 51% from making a purchase in the first place, and more than four in 10 consumers indicated that restocking fees would stop them from transacting.

Marketers should also ensure that their product pages have several high-definition photos, detailed product descriptions, and shipping and returns information if they want to convert shoppers into buyers. Our Take: Personalization is vital to capturing shoppers’ attention and enticing them to buy a specific product.

“We should see better supply-side news as shipping bottlenecks slowly clear, input shortages diminish, and Americans return to the job market,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, lead US economist at Oxford Economics, in a research note reported in TKer. The big takeaway: There’s no escaping the reality that the global landscape is causing significant uncertainty.

In the future, further changes should render the returns process even more sustainable. For example, it may become standard for retailers to ask their logistics partners to consolidate returns before shipping them back. Meanwhile, some innovators are tackling the returns problem higher up the shopping funnel.