The Retail Equation (TRE) publishes the annual Consumer Returns in the Retail Industry report to shed light on return trends and, ultimately, help retailers compare and improve their business processes. We are pleased to extend the application of this report to a monthly analysis of merchandise return activity. Each month, TRE will release the TRE Return Index, which is a numerical estimation of the volume of returns compared to U.S. retail sales. Our goal is to provide retailers with a monthly overview of return trends, statistics, and key learnings.

Trend report observations from this month include:

2016 RETAIL RETURN TRENDS

The official start of the holiday shopping season caused an 11 percent increase in returns during November.

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1

2

3

NOV EMBER

The official start of the holiday shopping season caused an 11 percent increase in returns during November.

The Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving (November 24) had the highest volume of returns.

In November, mall based retailers showed the highest lift in returns compared to other retail formats.

TRE Return IndexVolume of Returns (Unit Adjusted) Compared to U.S. Retail Sales

150

142

134

126

118

110

102

94

86

78

70JAN2016

FEB2016

MAR2016

APR2016

MAY2016

JUN2016

JUL2016

AUG2016

SEP2016

OCT2016

NOV2016

DEC2016

Legend: — TRE Return Index --- TRE Return Index (estimated) — U.S. Monthly Retail Sales (unadjusted)

TRE Return Index = 85.0

Change from Prior Month = 11.1%

$271.9 B

Returns by Date/Time and Retailer Type

Returns by Day of Week

0

51

102

153

204

255

306

357

408

459

510

DEC2015

JAN2016

FEB2016

MAR2016

APR2016

MAY2016

JUN2016

JUL2016

AUG2016

SEP2016

OCT2016

NOV2016

0

26

52

78

104

130

156

182

208

234

260

JAN2016

FEB2016

MAR2016

APR2016

MAY2016

JUN2016

JUL2016

AUG2016

SEP2016

OCT2016

NOV2016

DEC2015

Return Index by Retail Category

Return Index by Retail Format

Saturday’s return volume was 76.8 percent higher than Thursday’s.

The Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving (November 24) had the highest volume of returns. Those days were nearly 30 percent higher than the month’s average.

In November, mall based retailers showed the highest lift in returns compared to other retail formats.

Returns were up across the board. Mixed goods retailers suffered the highest influx with a 33 percent increase.

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0.0

17.5

35.0

52.5

70.0

SaturdayFridayThursdayWednesdayTuesdayMondaySunday

2 | 2016 RETA IL RETURN TRENDS

Legend: — Department Stores — Mix of Hard and Soft Goods Retailers — Hard Goods Retailers — Soft Goods Retailers

Legend: — Big Box Retailers — Mall Based Retailers — Strip Mall and Stand Alone Retailers

Returns by Day of Month

11/1

/201

6

11/2

/201

6

11/3

/201

6

11/4

/201

6

11/5

/201

6

11/6

/201

6

11/7

/201

6

11/8

/201

6

11/9

/201

6

11/1

0/20

16

11/1

1/20

16

11/1

2/20

16

11/1

3/20

16

11/1

4/20

16

11/1

5/20

16

11/1

6/20

16

11/1

7/20

16

11/1

8/20

16

11/1

9/20

16

11/2

0/20

16

11/2

1/20

16

11/2

2/20

16

11/2

3/20

16

11/2

4/20

16

11/2

5/20

16

11/2

6/20

16

11/2

7/20

16

11/2

8/20

16

11/2

9/20

16

11/3

0/20

16

Average

Returns by Geographic Location

Returns by State

Returns by Region

Twenty-one states ranked the same in November as in October. California, Puerto Rico, and North Dakota posted the highest return volumes. Wyoming, Maine, and Vermont posted the lowest.

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3 | 2016 RETA IL RETURN TRENDS

The South had the highest percentage of total returns, posting just over 34 percent. The three other regions all posted less than 23 percent.

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NORTHEASTTRE Return Index: 80.3Percent of total returns: 22.6%

SOUTHTRE Return Index: 76.9Percent of total returns: 34.4%

MIDWESTTRE Return Index: 88.8Percent of total returns: 21.6%

WESTTRE Return Index: 103.6Percent of total returns: 21.4%

10 states with lowest frequency of returns

Average states

10 states with highest frequency of returns

Methodology and Participating Retailers

The monthly TRE Retail Return Trend report is compiled by The Retail Equation by analyzing merchandise return transactions from retailers in the U.S. and Canada over a variety of retail segments, including many of the world’s largest, well-known big box, mass merchandise, department store, grocery/drug, and specialty retail merchants.

The Retail Equation would like to thank all of the retailers who regularly participate in this report. You will notice that no retailer names are mentioned, per TRE’s commitment to maintain confidentiality of each organization’s data.

The Retail Equation

The Retail Equation, an Appriss company, optimizes retailers’ revenue and margin by shaping behavior in every customer transaction. The company’s solutions use predictive analytics to turn each individual shopper visit into a more profitable experience. This yields immediate financial payback, increasing store comps by as much as two percent, with significant return on investment. The Software-as-a-Service applications operate in more than 34,000 stores in North America, supporting a diverse retail base of specialty apparel, footwear, hard goods, department, big box, auto parts, drug/pharmacy, grocery, and more.

PO Box 51373 Irvine, CA 92619-1373 USA +1 (888) 371-1616 www.TheRetailEquation.com

© December 2016. The Retail Equation, Inc., an Appriss company. All Rights Reserved. The Retail Equation logo is a trademark of The Retail Equation Incorporated. Patents, pending patents, trademarks, service marks and registered trademarks referenced herein are the property of The Retail Equation Incorporated, including but not limited to The Retail Equation, Verify Return Authorization, Verify-1, Verify-2, Verify-3, Receipt Verification, Change for Charity, Return Rewards, Purchase Rewards and Patents 6,016,480, 7,455,226, 8,025,229, 8,355,946, 8,356,750, 8,561,896, and 8,583,478.

Proprietary and Confidential. TRE3015-11

The holiday shopping season provides an unparalleled opportunity to observe the return experience in your stores. What you see in these next several weeks will show where the return process can be improved.

• Do consumers seem calm or impatient?

• How do your associates react?

• Are there any logjams?

• What steps are associates forgetting or skipping?

• Is there a policy that consistently confuses consumers or staff?

• Are there problems specific to cross-channel returns?

• What are top performing stores doing differently?

Returns are a vital part of consumers’ shopping decisions. The observations you make now can help you shape a more profitable 2017.

RETURNS IN FOCUS