The holiday season can make great sales for sellers, on the other hand, there will make more returns. For the e-commerce community, the product return rate after Christmas may be between 20% and 40%, and the return rate in some industries may sometimes be as high as 50%. And this year Amazon released an announcement about extending the holiday return period from October 1st. Some sellers worried that the Amazon return rate will be high because of the extension of the holiday returns.
“There will be 4 months for a buyer to decide whether to return the product after purchasing Halloween products. It will affect our store.” One seller expressed his concerns.
In order to solve the problem, we have to analyze the problem more deeply to find the cause, and then find the method to reduce the unnecessary return.
Table of Contents
Why buyers will return the product?
1. The product does not match the description
When optimizing the keywords or descriptions of the listing, make sure that it is based on the actual situation, and do not deliberately exaggerate the facts, otherwise, it is normal to encounter a return, and it is easy to cause other troubles.
2. Inconsistent product color, size, model, specification, and others
Whether it’s product introduction or the shipping time, you must pay attention to clearly explain the parameters of your product.
Just like customers who originally wanted to buy the iPhone 7 plus mobile phone case, you sent an iPhone 7 mobile phone case. Definitely, there is a high possibility for shoppers to return the product.
3. Customers don’t know how to use the product
Some product functions are slightly complicated or require specific operations, so a detailed instruction manual must be provided and necessary reminders for the operation details.
4. Quality issues
I believe that no one will want to buy counterfeit products, but the purchase channel may not be reliable. Here, the seller needs to strictly check the quality and do a quality check before shipment.
5. Shipping issues
It is necessary to allow buyers to track the product when the product is on the way to them. In addition, it is better to ensure that the product reaches the customer’s hands in the shortest possible time.
Of course, the problems may not always appear on the sellers. As long as the product quality is up to the standard, most buyers will happily place an order and receive the goods and leave a good comment.
Besides, there will be some inevitable bad behaviors of buyers. Some unscrupulous buyers will use the rules of the Amazon platform to brings huge pressure to the sellers. Generally, they do the thing just like this:
- Falsely claim that it has not received the inclusion, and claim a refund on the grounds of “item not received”.
- They falsely claim a refund on the grounds of “item not as described”.
- Return a completely different product.
- Various false reasons for return, especially in the clothing industry, it is easy to appear inconsistent in size.
- The damage to the goods is not necessarily caused by the logistics party, but it may also be accidentally damaged by the seller after getting it.
- Malicious returns from competitors.
In short, you will encounter all kinds of weird reasons to return goods and refunds. And these things are still unavoidable because Amazon provides enough protection for customers.
How to check the Amazon refund rate？
1. Check on the seller center
Go to your seller center, click Reports– Seller Reports–Seller Performance– Units Refunded & Refund Rate
2. Captain BI
From your Captain BI account, go to Sales Analytics>Refunds. Easily check your refund orders and refund the reason.
How to reduce the return rate?
1. Provide a true product description
The product does not match the description is the common reason for returns. Check your product description if there a problem with the text and image of the product.
It is better to keep in mind: Do not exaggerate the product. If your product is not at the top of the industry, it is better not to describe it as Excellent.
2. Provide accuracy product images
Customers learn about your product from its images, they always want to see all sides of the product including front, back, top, bottom, and all sides. In this way, you also should provide more accurate product page text and pictures.
Maybe you can do these:
Provide pictures that showing all angles of the product;
Use reference objects to display product dimensions;
Display various parts of the product;
Show product usage scenarios;
To ensure the accuracy of the product color, customers will have objections due to the color, especially clothing and household products. The wrong color may mean the risk of 100% return. Of course, it is unavoidable.
We have the responsibility to clearly inform our target customers in the product page information and pictures.
3. Avoid product packaging defects
“Why does my product seem to have been opened?”, “The product seems to have been used…” You may receive a refund reason like that.
If it is damaged or cheap packaging will make customers doubt the actual price of the product. You should pay attention to this if you sell luxury and high-priced products.
4. Provide customer service in real time
Customers have other questions about the product, which are not mentioned in the product description, if you can provide customer service in real time, you can help them address their needs and choose the right products.
5. Figure out the reason for return
A customer who has a negative experience with your store is more likely to leave bad feedback or a bad review. You can analyze and identify the issues related to the products in their reviews to improve the quality and reduce returns.
No matter your return rate is high or low, always look at the reasons for returns and sort out the reasons with the highest frequency, so as to adjust or formulate corresponding measures to maximize the avoidance of the same situation.
6. Work closely with your suppliers
If you don’t sell items manufactured by yourself, put an extra effort into working with your suppliers. For example, if you realize that the packaging material is not protective enough and will likely cause damaged freight, you need to communicate with your supplier and discuss an improvement for their packaging standards.
And about the defective products, we recommend sellers and suppliers sign a return and exchange guarantee agreement. On the one hand, they force cooperating suppliers to provide better quality products to help you reduce the return rate. On the other hand, it will help increase your income.
Hope it can be helpful to you, if you have a better way to reduce the amazon return rate we would love to hear from you!
Learn More:
All about FBA: What is FBA? How it works? pros and cons? And Amazon fee?