SIRAS: Low Returns For Video Products

By Editors of TWICE -- TWICE, 7/19/2010

REDMOND, WASH. — Home video hardware has one of the lowest levels of attempted returns in consumer electronics, according to the latest aging return data from SIRAS.

The provider of point-of-sale product registration services to retailers and manufacturers, which provides these reports to TWICE exclusively, said that the home video hardware category for the June 2009 to May 2010 report includes DVD/portable DVD, Blu-ray, digital tuners and converters, and home-theater components, but not TVs.

The reason for the category’s low level of attempted returns (as a percentage of total products purchased) is because it has the single lowest rate of attempted returns during the first 15 days following the date of sale: Less than 70 percent of return attempts take place during this period.

SIRAS president Peter Junger said the low overall rate of return is a function of two factors. First, the category includes the digital TV tuners that were part of the government’s tuner rebate program last year. The program subsidized consumer purchases of tens of millions of digital tuners so that people typically paid $25 or less from their own pockets for the device.

Presumably, Junger said, only those people who needed a box bought one, and those who needed it kept it, since it was their least costly way to receive digital broadcasts following the analog cutoff.

Secondly, said Junger, the category includes DVD players, which, as one of the less expensive and most popular home technology devices, is unlikely to arouse buyer’s remorse. They are also devices that are relatively simple to install and operate, and hence are least likely to give customers cause to attempt a return.

Retailers who are experiencing a higher return rate for video hardware than for other goods, or who experience a high rate of return (attempts) during the 15 days post purchase, may want to look into the situation, since it could be sign of return fraud or other problems, SIRAS said.