What should we do if the return rate soars after Black Friday?

The much-anticipated Black Friday has come to an end. According to foreign media statistics, Amazon has once again broken its historical sales record on Black Friday this year. It is estimated that the entire Black Friday online sales will be around 7.4 billion US dollars, an increase of 19.3% compared to last year's 6.2 billion.

Among Amazon's major sites, the US site has sales of more than 4.5 billion US dollars, accounting for 61.5% of the global sites, the European site accounts for about 23%, and the Japanese site accounts for about 9.5%.

Although Black Friday is over, sellers’ work is far from over. The surge in sales will be followed by a surge in the number of returns.

The return rate greatly affects product conversion rate and profits, and will ultimately threaten the seller's business development and account security.

Therefore, how to properly handle returns during the peak season is the biggest headache for sellers.

If you are an FBA seller, it will save you a lot of trouble if Amazon helps you handle returns.

However, if the goods returned by Amazon are not properly handled, it will cause certain cost waste.

The following measures can be taken to deal with returns depending on the degree of damage to the product:

1. The product is not damaged

If Amazon determines that the returned goods can be resold, the goods will be returned to your existing inventory.

If Amazon determines that the product cannot be resold but you feel that it is not actually damaged, you can contact Amazon to relabel it and sell it again.

2. The product is damaged

If it is damaged, Amazon will prompt you that the product is no longer available for sale.

Considering the cost of goods, if the cost of goods is low, Amazon can destroy them.

If the cost of goods is high, you can ask a third-party overseas warehouse company to ship them back to China, or ask a third-party overseas warehouse company that can provide repair and return services to help handle it.

If the goods are damaged starting from the Amazon FBA warehouse, or if they are damaged during transportation after leaving the warehouse, then the responsibility lies with Amazon, and the seller will have reason to file a claim with Amazon.

But it is also possible that the seller was not careful when packaging the goods, resulting in damage to the goods when shipped to the Amazon FBA warehouse. In this case, the responsibility is the seller, and Amazon will not accept your claim request.

3. Return processing for self-delivered goods

If you are a self-shipping seller, the most important thing is to communicate with the buyer.

You can negotiate with the buyer to refund only part of the money based on your product cost, and the goods will be given to the buyer for free to reduce losses.

If the buyer disagrees, and if the value of the goods is not high, it is recommended that you refund the full amount and send the goods directly to the buyer.

If the value of the goods is high, it is recommended to follow normal procedures and let the buyer send the goods to an overseas warehouse.

Processing returns will take up a lot of sellers' time and will also cause cost losses, so the fundamental solution should be to reduce the return rate from the source.

1. Don’t be too exaggerated on your product detail page

Be detailed about your listing, but don't be too exaggerated.

If the product purchased by the buyer does not meet his or her psychological expectations, and the buyer feels that the buyer's show and the seller's show are too different, the buyer will feel cheated and will generally return the product directly.

In the product description, mark the precise product size, and explain the product's properties, characteristics, service life and scope of application as clearly as possible. Do not be ambiguous.

Product images should show the product from multiple angles, or product videos should be added.

2. Improve product quality and packaging

If the return is due to product reasons, then we should start with the product quality, packaging and other aspects.

Only when the quality of the product is good enough can we reduce returns and negative reviews.

3. Check out the buyer’s voice

Last month, Amazon completed the launch of “Voice of Customer” on its North American, European, and Japanese sites, providing sellers with detailed information on the health of their listings’ buyer experience.

You can view the buyer experience health of all listed products and read customer reviews to identify product and product information issues, such as mislabeling, damaged or defective products, and inaccurate or incomplete detail pages.

With this information, you have the opportunity to take timely action to resolve the issue and prevent future returns and negative reviews.

4. Take product profits into consideration

If the return rate of a product remains high, you should carefully consider whether the product's profits can withstand such a high return rate before deciding whether to continue selling the product.