Each week, The Pulse provides insight into the buying, sourcing and brand-loyalty habits of counter personnel and professional technicians. This week, using Babcox Research, we look at the warranty returns.

Returns are a hot-button issue for the automotive aftermarket, with many parts stores reporting returns of as high as 25 percent. Babcox Research recently surveyed readers of Counterman magazine to find out what percentage of total sales come back as warranty returns, in particular. The survey found that on average 4.7 percent of total sales come back as warranty returns.

What reasons make up the other 95.3 percent? Essential Action Design Group is currently investigating this issue, hoping to develop a research project and subsequently publish a series of articles to educate the industry and (hopefully) significantly decrease returns in the future. To read more on this project, click here.

For more information about Babcox Research, go to: http://www.babcox.com/marketing_research.html.