在我担任会计师的三十多年里，我从许多比我聪明得多的人那里学到了很多商业经验。Jerry Crawford 就是其中之一。Jerry 教会了我关于产品退货的知识。
n my 30-plus years of being an accountant I have learned many business lessons from people who were much smarter than me. Jerry Crawford was one of those people. Jerry taught me about product returns.
Jerry —— 遗憾的是他在十年前去世了 —— 从新泽西南部一栋不起眼的小楼里批发地毯。他雇佣了约 50 名员工，客户包括许多本地和全国性的地毯零售商。当我审阅 Jerry 的账本时，我注意到有一大笔“退货”准备金。“这是每个企业都必不可少的一部分，”他告诉我。
Jerry – who sadly passed away a decade ago – sold carpets wholesale from a nondescript little building in south Jersey. He employed about 50 people and counted many local and national carpet retailers as his customers. When I reviewed Jerry’s books, I noticed a large reserve for “returns”. “They’re a part of every business,” he told me.
“准备金”是企业为潜在未来成本而设立的资金。有些企业计提坏账准备，有些为陈旧库存计提处置准备，而许多企业 —— 像 Jerry 的那样 —— 则为客户退货可能产生的成本计提准备。
A “reserve” is something businesses create for potential future costs. Some reserve for bad debts. Others reserve for inventory that grows old and will need to be disposed of. And plenty of businesses – like Jerry’s – reserve for the potential costs that will be incurred if a customer returns their product.
退货只是商业活动的正常组成部分。许多像 Jerry 这样的小企业主竭尽全力让退货流程尽可能简便。一些大公司，如亚马逊，也是如此。
Returns are just a normal part of business. Plenty of small business owners like Jerry go to great lengths to make the process as easy as possible. Some big companies, such as Amazon, do the same.
“做这件事是有成本的，”Jerry 说，“所以我一定要为这笔成本计提准备金。”这很有道理。然而，似乎许多企业仍未吸取这个教训。
“There’s a cost to do this,” Jerry said. “So I make sure to build a reserve for that cost.”Makes sense. And yet, it seems that many businesses still haven’t learned this lesson.
据《华尔街日报》报道，许多美国人抱怨退货变得越来越难。他们遇到“意外费用、退货期限缩短，以及被问更多退货原因的问题”。据报道，有些人甚至“收到警告，称下次退货将不予退款”。
According to the Wall Street Journal many Americans are complaining that it’s getting harder to return things. They’re seeing “surprise fees, shorter return windows and more questions about their reasons for sending products back”. Some, according to the report, are “getting warnings that they won’t get a refund on their next return”.
Jerry 要是看到这种情况，定会摇头叹息。在他看来，这说不通。在我看来也不合理。
Jerry would be shaking his head at this. To him, it wouldn’t make sense. And it doesn’t make sense to me either.
是的，确实存在少数不良商家会利用这一做法牟利。是的，接受退货会给企业增加成本。但就像信用卡手续费、健康保险和加班费一样，这是一项完全可以收回的成本。你只需在一年左右的时间里记录这些成本，建立历史数据，估算下一年的成本，然后将这些成本计入管理费用。管理费用再反映在定价中。
Yes, there are a few bad actors that will take advantage of the practice. And yes, accepting returns adds costs for a business. But, like credit card fees, health insurance and overtime, this is a cost that can easily be recouped. All you need to do is capture those costs over a year or so, build a history, estimate what the next year’s cost will be and then factor those costs into your overhead. Your overhead is then factored into your pricing.
以杰瑞为例，他根据退货历史记录，在每笔销售中预留 0.5% 作为退货准备金。他全年累积这笔储备，退货产品的成本就从中扣除。0.5% 的准备金意味着，原本售价 1000 美元的一卷地毯，他卖 1005 美元。顾客根本察觉不到这 5 美元的差别。你会察觉吗？这点差别微乎其微。但对企业而言，这些成本累积起来相当可观，通过这种做法，成本就得到了覆盖。
In Jerry’s case, he reserved one half of 1% on each of his sales as a returns allowance based on his history of returns. He built up this reserve throughout the year, then charged returned products against it. A .5% reserve meant that instead of charging $1,000 for a roll of carpet, he charged $1,005. His customers didn’t notice the $5 difference. Would you? The difference is negligible. But for a business, those costs add up and, by doing this, those costs are covered.
按理说，经过数千年的商业实践，以及顶尖机构、专家、学者和权威人士的智慧积累，现在的商业领袖理应理解这个概念。那么，为什么零售商仍未意识到这一点？这对我来说是个谜。
You’d think that, after thousands of years of business practice and the knowledge of some of the finest institutions, pundits, academics and experts, our business leaders today would understand this concept. So why don’t retailers realize this? It’s a mystery to me.
他们难道没看到，设置障碍、向顾客收取退货费，只会激起反感、破坏忠诚度、招致负面舆论吗？尽管历史教训摆在面前，企业却一再重蹈覆辙，这令我震惊。
They must see that creating obstacles and charging their customers for returns only creates animosity, ruins their loyalty and results in unfavorable press coverage. It’s shocking to me how businesses continue to make the same mistakes over and over again, despite the lessons of history.
不层层盘剥顾客，就能让顾客满意、建立忠诚、发展业务。杰瑞·克劳福德只有高中学历，却靠卖地毯盈利经营了几十年，他懂得这个道理。
You can keep your customers happy, build loyalty and grow your business by not nickel-and-diming them. Jerry Crawford, a small business owner with a high school education who profitably sold carpets for decades, understood this.