Despite a significant crackdown on customers who send back excessive amounts of merchandise, many vendors remain anxious of Amazon returns. When compared to traditional retail establishments, eCommerce has higher return rates. According to Invesp, at least 30% of all online products are returned, compared to 8.89% in brick-and-mortar stores.
Returns may significantly negatively influence a seller’s profitability on marketplaces like Amazon. Even yet, it’s crucial to handle Amazon returns in a kind, positive, and helpful manner, even when customers appear unreasonable.
The Importance of Dealing with Amazon Returns
To safeguard your account and your image in the marketplace, you must manage your Amazon returns correctly.
When something prevents you from closing a sale, you must identify the issue and take swift action to fix it. This must be done before increasing returns and unfavorable reviews harm your seller KPIs. Your visibility and Buy Box competitiveness will decline if this occurs.
In the end, having too many returns may result in your Amazon account being suspended.
You should closely watch Amazon FBA returns when it comes to them. Otherwise, you can be out of money, and Amazon FBA return costs might reduce your revenues.
Numerous problems may arise and need to be handled, including
- Actual returns of the goods not being made.
- Amazon is not properly reimbursing your account.
- Misleading returns.
How To Deal with Amazon Returns
1. Keep a record of your returns
Customers get their money back immediately when it comes to returns through Amazon FBA. Therefore, to ensure that the shipment is returned within 45 days, you must keep track of any incoming refund notices in your inbox. Otherwise, Amazon ought to pay you back.
Refund notifications should be added to a particular email folder. You will have an accurate record if you do this. You may monitor your Amazon Seller Account returns by visiting the reporting area and selecting returns. You should routinely check your account in case you miss an email.
However, the items included in this report are all refunds. You must search for the item in your FBA inventory to determine whether it has arrived at Amazon’s fulfillment center. Contact Amazon help if you ever have questions about whether an item is returned to the warehouse or not.
2. Contact the buyer
In a perfect world, you would avoid client complaints altogether. Therefore, as soon as you learn of a return, you should apologize to the consumer for their unfavorable experience. Positive comments could be avoided with a truthful message. Your engagement may persuade the consumer to delete their negative review, even if they previously posted one.
If you’re an FBA merchant, you should include in your reply if the consumer has received their refund. Even though this is Amazon’s domain, if something goes wrong, you risk getting a negative review.
3. Find out why items are returned
To cut down on future returns, it’s important to figure out why things were sent back. You should contact your supplier if there are issues with quality or faults. You must arrange your shipment if there are problems with late arrival.
Finding out the rationale for returns may be accomplished by contacting consumers. But you may also do this action by running a report in your Amazon Seller Account. This report is excellent for finding persistent problems.
You are entitled to the product price and your referral fee back if you are an FBA seller, and you receive a return due to damage that occurred while your stock was in Amazon’s care.
4. Inspect returns
Sellers on FBA and FBM should carefully examine their returns for two reasons:
- Check if it is suitable for resale
- Check if the stated reason for return is accurate
Customers will be required to cover freight costs if they pick specific justifications for their returns. Some consumers may claim that an item is damaged when it is not to receive free return shipping. They might not be aware of the adverse effects on an Amazon seller’s KPIs.
Open a support request with Amazon if you investigate a product reported as faulty and discover it most definitely isn’t. Send an image of the item’s state along with the order confirmation. It could result in compensation.
Examining Amazon FBA refunds is more difficult for FBA sellers. It needs to be done by seeking a removal order, which costs 50 cents for objects of normal size.
The warehouse employees at an Amazon fulfillment center will examine a returned item and determine whether or not it may be added to your stock. They will not consider the item resellable if it has been opened or damaged.
Even for objects considered able to be sold, you should nevertheless ask for a removal order. Why? Open or broken goods can be sent to a subsequent buyer if an Amazon employee makes a mistake. Your reputation is on the line; thus, it is worthwhile to take the extra time to ensure that your returns are flawless before reselling them.
Returns from Amazon are inevitable, but they may be minimized. Your return rates might vary depending on a number of factors, including the state of your listings and the timeliness of delivery. Do your best to keep expectations in line, and whenever you’re considering how to do better, keep in mind that Amazon customers are always your primary audience.
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