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Regardless of what you’re selling on Amazon, the demand for refunds is an unavoidable, unpleasant phenomenon that you’ll have to face.
However, the lower it goes, the higher your profit, reputation and return customer basis will be.
A healthy and lenient refund policy is a great thing, seeing as how it demonstrates both the confidence in your product and a customer-friendly mindset on your part.
Still, it is clear that avoiding it whenever possible is definitely the most profitable course of action.
With that in mind and without further ado, here are:
5 Ways in Which You Can Lower Your Return Rate on Amazon
#1. Detailed Product Description
The first thing you need to understand is the fact that not all returns of the product are due to its malfunctioning or misbehaving.
Every now and then, the issue will be that the person in question failed to understand or get informed on the properties of the product. Sure, there’s a chance that with enough research they could learn all they need to know from the review but it’s irresponsible to leave this to others.
When it comes to this, you need to find a perfect balance between writing too much (more than people are willing to read) and not including vital information.
For instance, if you’re selling devices, you might be so focused on the performance that you forget to mention product dimensions, materials used, color options and the location of the product’s manufacturing.
While the latter may be considered redundant by some sellers and buyers, it never hurts to cover as many aspects as possible.
#2. High-Quality 360-Image
The next thing you need to keep in mind is the fact that the biggest downside of e-commerce lies in the fact that people can’t touch and feel the product in their hand before buying it.
In fact, this is why a lot of people still prefer traditional retail, even in the era of sophisticated e-commerce and same-day delivery.
It’s not like they could examine the product by touching it or examining it from all sides, yet, it’s this ability to get a tactile and more detailed visual examination of the product that makes a difference.
The closest you can come to it is to include a high-quality image showing the product from all sides, so that your buyers can get an experience that’s, at least, close to this.
It’s probably even better for you to include the video, due to the fact that it gives an even greater boost to the overall immersion.
#3. Refund as Damage Control
Perhaps the most important thing you need to understand is the fact that refunds are sometimes inevitable. Instead of looking at them as a profit loss, you should instead perceive them as damage control.
Think about it, a person who is satisfied with your product might not leave a review but someone who feels like they’re scammed is bound to do so.
The worst part is that you might not have anything to do with it. Sometimes, the damage to the product comes due to Amazon’s mistake and not something that FBA seller did.
In this case, an FBA seller might be eligible for refund from Amazon and failing to follow through with it would be an unnecessary missed opportunity and a loss of assets.
- Also Read – Selling on Amazon – Where Do You Start?
#4. Relying on Customer Reviews
The best form of insulation against high return rate is customer reviews. This way, a potential buyer can get an insight into what your products are all about from the user’s perspective.
Remember, your own description is always biased (no matter how hard you try to stay objective). Even negative reviews can serve the purpose, seeing as how a potential buyer will be warned of a potential issue in time.
Who knows, this might be the issue to outrage them, make them leave a negative comment of their own and ask for a refund. All of this can be avoided if they would get properly informed in time, even though, on paper, it may seem as if this is not in your best interest.
#5. Gathering Customer Data on Product Return
In one of the previous sections, we mentioned that some returns and refunds will be inevitable. When this finally happens, you need to stop looking at it as a defeat or failure but as an opportunity to grow and learn from this experience.
What you need to do in order to achieve this is start gathering customer data on product return rates and try to figure out what seems to be the issue.
First of all, you need to figure out which products are returned the most. Then, you need to take notice of the principal reason for your customers returning these products.
One important issue that often gets overlooked is – how much time has passed between the purchase of the product and its return? Sometimes, even seasonal factors may be relevant. For instance, some products may be returned more often during a holiday season.
One last thing, if you notice that certain customers are returning products more often than others, this too might be an indicator of a different problem (the one you might not be able to solve).
Conclusion
At the end of the day, it’s important that you have realistic expectations revolving around this. You can’t expect your customers not to want to return faulty or damaged products.
Nonetheless, this would require improvements to the infrastructure that you (as an FBA seller) may not have any influence over.
Therefore, the best you can do is try to get your audience as informed as possible in order to lower the number of returns due to misinformation, as well as try not to be damaged party when you don’t have to.
It may not sound like much but these two steps alone can make a massive difference when it comes to your bottom line.
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