Amazon returns are no longer free, sellers’ return rates are saved!

Recently, Amazon announced that if consumers want to return goods through UPS outlets, they will be charged a $1 fee. Prior to this, Amazon has always implemented a free return policy.

However, charging only $1 is still very conscientious compared to other peers. Last year, the US department store chain TJ Maxx announced that it would charge $10.99 for returns. During the same period, fast fashion chain brands such as J.Crew, H&M and Zara also launched return fee policies, with fees ranging from $3.95 to $7.5.

For a long time, there has been no cost for Amazon consumers to return items purchased from the platform, but this has also led to frequent random and malicious returns.

In recent years, under pressure from revenue, Amazon has quietly adjusted its policies. Starting last year, door-to-door returns are no longer free.

Now, the fee has been extended to UPS outlets, but returns to Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh or Kohl's are still free. But judging from the current trend, it is only a matter of time before all channels charge for returns in the future.

Since the beginning of this year, Amazon has announced layoffs of nearly 30,000 people, and reducing costs and increasing efficiency seems to have become the top priority for this e-commerce giant this year.

In fact, returns are a headache for many retailers. During the epidemic, although the number of online orders soared, the return rate also rose. Since online shopping has certain limitations compared to offline shopping, consumers cannot be sure whether the product is what they want before they get it.

According to data from the National Retail Federation, consumers returned approximately $428 billion in merchandise in 2020, accounting for 10.6% of U.S. retail sales.

That is to say, for every $1 billion in sales, sellers will generate $106 million in merchandise returns. In addition, sellers not only have to bear the return shipping costs, but also have to lower the price of the returned products for secondary sales, which once again squeezes the sellers' already small profits.

Last month, Amazon also tagged some products with "frequent returns", hoping to reduce the number of returns from consumers and thus reduce its own costs. However, the products tagged with this label are in trouble. Some sellers said that their sales have dropped sharply since they were labeled with the "frequent returns" label.

However, if full-channel return charges are really implemented in the future, consumers will have concerns when returning goods, and malicious returns should be reduced, so that the rights and interests of sellers can be protected to a certain extent.

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