logo
logo
Sign in

What are E-commerce Returns and How They can Be Handled?

avatar
Autofulfil Order Fulfilment Experts
What are E-commerce Returns and How They can Be Handled?

Working as an e-commerce retailer you may have to experience numerous problems while handling customer queries regarding different products and shipments. However, it is a part of an e-commerce business but the most frustrating part of the business is eCommerce returns as customers can use the return or reverse logistics service for many reasons. The potential reasons for customer returns are:

The product is not up to the mark as per the customer’s needs and expectations

The customer has canceled the order

When the customer no longer require the product

Due to improper fitting or size of the product

When retailer shipped a damaged product

Or when retailer shipped a wrong product etc

These are some potential reasons that you can find for the customer returns and you have to handle these returns well to keep the returned goods back into the stock or to prepare another shipment with the correct product or an alternative product.

Product returns can be the fault of both customers and the retailer but as an owner of the e-commerce business, you have to handle it well. However, handling the wide number of customer returns will take a huge amount of your valuable time so you can give responsibility for handling the eCommerce returns to your logistics service provider.

When you hire a professional logistics service provider company for handling returns then:

The company will receive the returned goods at the returned warehouse address and inspect the quality of the returned goods to evaluate the re-sale condition of the products before adding them to the stock in the system.

The company will book the returned products into the warehouse inventory through the WMS system and keep them in the stock according to the type and position of the goods on the storage racks. If the products are damaged by the client and are not in the re-sale position then the company will inform you immediately and will share the images of the products to make a further action plan.

Your logistics partner will also manage the returns of shipped products that are returned by the carriers as such return can take place due to several possible reasons like;

Customer refused to receive the package

The customer gave the incomplete or wrong address for shipment

The customer is not available to accept the order

There is a dispute between the customer and order delivery person

The delivery people make the false delivery confirmation etc

Working as an e-commerce administrator you also have to bear the cost of returns which is an additional expense that you are entitled to incur when the returns of good happen. However, you can take a step forward by sending a disclaimer to your customers that if they returned the products in the damaged conditions or book a fake order for the products then the customer will be held responsible to bear the cost of the return. However, it is not easy to make customers agreed for bearing the charges of the return but you can make this condition to cover the expense of returns.  

collect
0
avatar
Autofulfil Order Fulfilment Experts
guide
Zupyak is the world’s largest content marketing community, with over 400 000 members and 3 million articles. Explore and get your content discovered.
Read more