In the words of DJ Khaled, “Another One” comes to mind with Amazon’s announcement of a new fee update. As of June 1, 2024, Amazon has implemented a returns processing fee for all products with high return rates. Although Amazon has not released how much it costs to manage seller returns, they believe this fee update will address their current operational costs of returns and reduce waste.
As part of Amazon’s current return policy, they complete the following steps on behalf of the seller for returned FBA products:
- Determine Return Eligibility
- Refund the Customer
- Evaluate the condition of the returned item
- Return Products to Inventory
- Issue Replacements to the Customer
- Return Products to the Seller
- Dispose of Unsellable Inventory
To monitor returns and return rates, sellers can review each product status from the FBA Returns page. Amazon provides each product’s current return rate, category threshold, and the top return reasons based on customer comments.
Review the SKU Economics Report to view all return processing fees. Although sellers can determine each product’s return processing fee, there is no way to plan for a new or existing product’s return rate. To help mitigate returns, here are some steps that sellers can utilize:
- Accurate product images
- Detailed product descriptions
- Product videos
- Monitor feedback and customer reviews
- Timely customer service
- Packaging inserts
