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Is anyone else hearing about smaller (non-Amazon) retailers getting rid of free returns? Apparently they lost a lot of money on returns during the pandemic. The news stories are pointing out to the public that it costs money to ship! The average return labels are running around $8. Today on the news I heard some retailers plan to charge a return fee (restocking fee?).
I had almost forgotten that EBay gives a fee discount to TRS plus but you have to add free returns. I don’t get many returns but hate getting stuck paying shipping so I’m hoping EBay drops that requirement.
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The Free returns and Free shipping is a function of Amazon getting buyers addicted to risk-free purchases. As a buyer, it is extremely wonderful to purchase things online knowing you can open it, try it, and send it back for a free refund. But its also a crazy business model for the seller.
If Amazon sellers and big retailers start pushing back on “no fee” returns, then maybe smaller sellers like us can do the same.
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@Jay I also love Amazon returns as a buyer. We take them to Whole Foods. My dad takes his to an Amazon locker. Most of the retailers in the news were smaller but yes, if Amazon quit that would be good for sellers.
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Even Amazon has amended their free returns policy. At least for some items we’ve purchased the only free return is one that you drop off at one of Amazon’s partners, either Amazon locker, Wholefoods, Amazon Fresh, etc… Perhaps this only applies to suburban areas where the infrastructure exists. I’ve also noticed that several of the stores my daughter has been shopping from are charging to return items unless you bring them into their retail stores.
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eBay keeps pushing for me to offer free returns in most of my clothing categories, but I refuse. I think it has stopped a few returns from happening. This last month I also experimented with ending free shipping as well to see if it improves my bottom line.
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I have free returns and I pay shipping on return shipping as well. I also sell about 40 items mostly in trading cards which is a niche full of picky collectors and grade chasers, which are buyers looking to buy the perfect ungraded card to submit and can be a bit unscrupulous.
I still only deal with maybe 3-4 returns a year. The last few years, I just offered the buyer a refund AND they keep the item. The buyers have always been thrilled (one or two of them even became a repeat customer for a few months) and I’m happy to just be done with it.
I am curious how many returns you clothing sellers deal with. I would think it could be as high as 1 in 15, but I imagine people would say that about trading cards as well and it hasn’t been the case for me at all.
As a buyer, the eBay money back guarantee has saved me more than a few times, often with low feedback sellers. I would hate to lose it.
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You are logical and it makes your life easier 🙂 I think these might also be $5 cards so not much to lose?
For us, we do our best to be logical but our ego can get in the way. When we take time to buy, inspect, photograph, measure and list an item….and the buyer makes a dumb complaint (in our opinion), it’s difficult to not take it personally. Many of our items are over $30, so its not an insignificant to just say “keep it”.
This is why we now simple say “open a return and send it back for a full refund”. Makes eBay happy. Buyer has to take a an action and be serious about the return. And we get the item back to resell.
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You are logical and it makes your life easier
I think these might also be $5 cards so not much to lose?I learned a lot about logic, for eBay and life in general, from a certain podcast. 🙂
I’ve let the buyer keep the item a few times when it was a $30 and up sale as well. The most expensive return I can remember was maybe a year or two ago, a card for $60ish to Canada where the buyer wasn’t happy with condition. I had a duplicate of the same card, so I sent them that one and, after arguing with myself for a bit, told the buyer just keep the original. It was at least a $100 loss (if not more) between cost of the sold items and shipping to Canada twice, but buyer was thrilled and I was careful with my budget for a week and then moved on with my life. It would have been such a headache to deal with return shipping from Canada.
When I only deal with returns a few times a year, it’s easiest to do whatever I can to make the buyer go away. Ego be damned. I plan to keep this policy consistent for as long as I can, regardless of what I sell in the future. But I’m sure there might be a certain $$ amount or type of items where I would want the buyer to return it. If this ever happens, you’ll all be the first to know. Returns can be so frustrating!
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