Too much return and refund
Hi Sellers,
I wonder if some advice me how to reduce the product returns. We are selling ladies shoes on Amazon, we manufacture our own product and sell them on Amazon. We are getting good sale now a days but the big problem is we are getting too much return as well. sometime it touches to 30% return of the total sell in a month.
We generally accept the return request instantly if its within the policies to keep our customer happy. but is it okay to accept the return request without any communication with buyers? Or should we communicate to buyer before accepting the request? sometime it take two days or more to get buyers response for communication email which resulted in negative impact on our performance metrics. that’s why we accept the request first.
Any suggestion to reduce the product return is most welcome. and please if somebody can suggest us how to deal with returns so that it impact on our seller performance on positive way.
Hope I’ll get the solution quick and helpful.
Thanks
Aarz London.
11 replies
Seller_qZO3ZCjoBXEeL
It is not necessary to communicate with buyers about returns unless you have specific returns procedures to follow.
It seems that ladies fashion is always going to be a very high returns rate industry-wide.
Seller_uP9LqiYV3yKFy
I think the industry average for returning women’s shoes bought online is 70% - highest return rate of any product
Seller_1uQXRkE8FXj7u
This has been a big issue of late, especially as Scott Mills and Chris Stark (Radio 1) decided to do some links on this which increased the returns for a lot of sellers.
It seems a lot of buyers will buy numerous products such as shoes and clothing to compare sizes and colours and send them back. They even had a massive thing to get all those that do this to ring in and share their stories. Some purcashed 10+ items and sent the whole lot back, just because they could. Some even wore the items that night and sent back . They found it higghly amusing and encouraged other to do it,. (complaint will be submited to Radio 1!)
We all know returns where clothing is concerend is going to happen but for real reasons but it seems that some buyers simply buy it just due to teh fact they can and know they will get their money back and postage costs!
Seller_EJIX7rqDNQJi2
Just like others already stated, high return rates are nothing uncommon in this product category.
You are not required to contact buyers who requested returns.
Also, keep in mind that you don’t need to refund in full in case the items arrive back in a different condition than sent, but can withhold the cost of loss of value.
Seller_uP9LqiYV3yKFy
30% is good, check out the net for these stats, it will help - you just need to factor in a little extra cost on the 70% to cover any admin costs on the 30%
Seller_qOKCONuScZFAZ
Does anyone else have to say something about it?
Seller_72Sy9T6sEfmjl
30% is a pretty good returns rate. If I sold women’s wear I’d be happy at that.
As previously said women will buy lots of different clothes just to try on and then send back. Some will wear the clothes for a weekend night out and then return.
Many will buy just to do Instagram posts and then send back.
I sell t-shirts and other clothing on my web site but I would not even consider selling on Amazon or ebay. Web site visitors tend to be a bit more ‘honest’ .
I’m not saying serial returners are doing anything dishonest, they’re not. They are just maxing out returns policies that have now become common place. And why not. This sort of thing happened long before the internet, it’s just a lot easier to do now.
I remember in the 1980’s as a teen heading to nightclubs it would not be unusual for me - as a male - and my girlfriend to go to Topshop or Topman and get an outfit for the weekend and return it the following week. Of course there was a limit to how much you could do it then because shop staff would recognise you and refuse to serve you. Today with the internet that option is not available.
