How are your Amazon return rate/reasons compare to other marketplaces?
Hi all,
I’m interested to hear how your Amazon Return rates (and reasons for returns) compare with other sales channels you use.
For Amazon we primarily use FBA, and have noticed recently that our Amazon return rate is a lot higher than the other well known online marketplace that we use. The actual number of returns is higher too, despite selling less on Amazon vs the other marketplace.
This may be quite natural, given the customer centric focus of Amazon and how easy buying & returning is on the site, although I have also noticed that on Amazon we seem to quite often get “Defective Item” as a reason for return, when on the other sales channel this is a much less common reason for return, which is making me question how many of these return reasons are genuine, and how many are buyers are just wanting a free return for an accidental purchase / change of mind.
The lack of buyer/seller interaction when using FBA makes it really hard to know if these “defective” items are really defective or are perfectly resaleable. Due to the nature of what we sell, engine-specific car parts, testing these products upon each return isn’t something we can easily do.
What is your experience amongst different marketplaces when it comes to returns?
3 replies
Seller_77IcbQKVGdZo0
Amazon FBA is the highest rate of returns that I see. However it is not that high either. In the last year 1% of my items were returned/refunded through FBA. I budgeted for a 2.5% return rate so was much lower than I expected.
Compared to the other marketplaces I sell on the return rate is still much higher. I rarely get a return or make a refund on other market places.
The biggest issue with returns on FBA for me is damaged/defective goods, a lot of my complaints around defective items are due to Amazon damaging the item in the fulfilment centre or when they deliver the item.
The other defective items which are not actually damaged and I get returned to me are not normally defective…often I think customers just use this as an excuse to return the item.
Seller_4MlYJvoHfdkDh
Yes, returns are much higher, I think for a few reasons. Ease of returning, so buyers don’t have to make as much effort checking if the product is exactly what they want, also the limitation of Amazon listings to convey detailed information. When you consider on eBay you can make a listing look as good and detailed as you like, videos, any pictures etc, there is less chance for a customer to miss something.
And also, scammers, and people just trying it on. Many of my items the buyer needs to use their own courier to return, and many of them never are.
Seller_ZQyopdiwkUHOZ
In terms of FBM, we can go months without a return anywhere else. On Amazon, we can’t go a full week.
