Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/1226877
AACREDITUNION.ORG | 19 willing to meet retailers halfway to get it," said Mark Mathews, Vice President for Research Development and Industry Analysis who heads research development for NRF. "And once they're in the store, they are very open to seeing what else the retailer has to offer." TWO: Make the most of returns What started with Zappos back in 1999 — free shipping and returns — is now something consumers count on. Walker Sands, a public relations and digital marketing agency in San Francisco, said 68% of online shoppers highly value free returns and exchanges. The downside to that is that while shoppers may return only 10% of what they buy in a store, they'll send back as much as 40% of what they buy online. Tobin Moore, CEO and co-founder of Optoro, a Washington, D.C., tech company that works with retailers, estimates online returns will reach more than $1 trillion a year in the next fi ve years. That's why returns are one of the biggest hidden costs of today's omnipresent free shipping. Many returns will never be resold for their original value. As much as 10% will never be sold again at all, instead ending up incinerated, thrown away or donated to charity. There is an upside. Retailers are more frequently using tech companies like Optoro and Happy Returns in Santa Monica, California, to build new supply chains so they can resell more of those returns. For consumers, that's creating new buying channels, especially for refurbished electronics that have often been barely used. Plus, Optoro, Happy Returns and others now operate liquidation businesses — Optoro's is called BULQ.com — where hard-to-resell, but basically good-as-new products can both dodge landfi lls and be purchased at rock-bottom prices. THREE: Bundle to save Want to save money and help save the environment at the same time? Opt for slower shipping of more products simultaneously. Bundled shopping — as opposed to express delivery of one or two products at a time — is greener, according to a study by Anne Goodchild, a transportation expert at the University of Washington. Goodchild found that delivery trucks emit less carbon dioxide when trucks are fuller and make fewer stops per week. Some retailers incentivize that same kind of shipping by requiring minimum purchase levels before free shipping kicks in. But mostly, the choice to buy more while shipping less — even for free — is up to us. JOSEPH GUINTO is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C. His last "free" shipping order included an iPad keyboard and an "Extraordinary Cat Comics" wall calendar.