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How to Keep Returns at a Minimum During the Holiday Season
SUMMARY
WebInterpret explains how to minimize returns on Amazon during the holiday season by focusing on product quality, creating detailed listings, encouraging reviews, and improving customer service.
Zeljko Drazovic
Zeljko is a versatile copywriter dedicated to the task of delivering informative content to Webinterpret’s readers. He’s also an avid researcher who’s always on the lookout for the latest ecommerce trends.
Running a profitable business on Amazon is a balancing act between providing a high-quality service to customers and maximizing your return on investment. That’s why it’s so important to make the most of major shopping events like Black Friday, Halloween, or Christmas.
However, focusing solely on the sales numbers while neglecting the quality of the shopping experience can be a costly mistake. That’s why sellers on Amazon often adopt the platform’s free returns policies in hopes of improving customer satisfaction and strengthening customer loyalty.
The only downside is that, like sales, returns peak during the holiday season, costing sellers a small fortune. The cost of items shoppers return to Amazon during and after the holiday season is over a hundred billion dollars every year.
In this article, we’ll explore the most efficient ways to maximize sales while keeping returns at an acceptable rate.
A Glance at the Amazon FBA Return Policy:
Nearly 90% of Amazon 3P sellers participate in Amazon FBA programs.
Still, delivering products you sell on Amazon through one of the FBA programs has its downsides, as you must pay numerous fees and cannot use your company’s branding on the packaging.
Starting from June 2024, FBA sellers must cover returns processing fees whenever Amazon provides a free return service to a customer. These fees apply to all product categories except Apparel and Shoes and range from $1.78 to more than $150 depending on the shipment size.
In addition, Amazon has expanded its returns policy for the 2024-2025 holiday season, so consumers can return products they purchase from November 1, 2024, until January 31, 2025. Consumers have until January 15, 2025, to return an Apple product they bought on Amazon.
The policy applies to FBA and FBM sellers, although you can decide whether to comply with it if your brand uses a 3PL solution to deliver products to its customers. Moreover, the extension of the free returns window can potentially be costly for sellers due to returns processing fees.
Hence, maintaining a low return rate is vital for having a profitable holiday season.
Tips to Keep Returns on Amazon at a Minimum During the Holiday Season
The extension of the return deadline during the holiday season isn’t necessarily bad news for online sellers because consumers might feel encouraged to shop more, knowing they have additional time to return an item.
Even so, entering the holiday season prepared can help you avoid a potential uptick in returns and maximize your earnings.
We’ve shortlisted several valuable tips to help you keep returns low and end the year on a strong note.
Check the Quality of Your Products Before Shipping
The Order Defect Rate (ODR) metric indicates the quality of service sellers provide to customers.
Monitoring the ODR throughout the holidays will give you insight into how shoppers perceive your brand and enable you to address any potential issues in case the percentage of returned packages starts to grow.
The best way to avoid an increase in ODR is to ensure all products you ship to an Amazon warehouse or directly to your customers are in perfect condition.
Doing so will considerably reduce the chances of delivering defective products to buyers and improve overall customer satisfaction.
Create Highly Informative Product Listings
Incorrect product dimensions, color, or incompatibility with other products are some of the most common reasons online shoppers return items they purchase.
You can easily avoid these issues by creating product listings that contain all the information a buyer might need to determine if a product meets their requirements.
Besides a detailed product description, you should also use A+ content to add photos and videos to your listings to give potential buyers a sense of how a product looks or put its range of applications on full display.
Moreover, international Amazon sellers should dedicate special attention to the localization of their listings to avoid returns caused by inaccurate translations of product descriptions or wrongly converted product dimensions.
Encourage Shoppers to Leave Reviews and Ratings
Word of mouth is as important on online marketplaces as it is in the offline world. More than 90% of consumers read Amazon reviews, but only 1% to 2% of shoppers regularly review products they purchase.
Moreover, Amazon’s A10 algorithm uses product reviews and ratings as a ranking factor, so a low number of reviews or a low rating can affect its visibility on different Amazon marketplaces.
Encouraging your customers to review items they buy from your store provides potential buyers with social proof that they’re not going to be disappointed by that item.
Additionally, reading about someone’s first-hand experience with a product helps shoppers understand it better and ultimately reduces the chances they’ll return it.
Focus on Improving the Quality of Customer Service
The quality of customer service often suffers as the sales figures grow, as brands often lack the resources to handle an increased volume of complaints. Consequently, this leads to more returns and limits a brand’s potential earnings.
Aside from creating an easily accessible line of communication with your customers, you should also consider expanding your customer support team during the holidays to ensure each complaint is handled quickly and efficiently.
Addressing your customers’ requests in a timely manner can lower the returns during the peak season, but more importantly, it can help expand your customer base and strengthen customer loyalty.
Making the Most of the Holiday Season by Minimizing Returns
Nearly two-thirds of shoppers check if the free return option is available before buying a product online. This statistic indicates that simple and free returns are integral to excellent customer service.
Still, the expanded return policy for the 2024/2025 holiday season can make it difficult for Amazon sellers to keep up with increased return rates during the holiday.
Hopefully, the tips we included in this article will help your brand avoid a significant increase in returns during the busiest time of the year in e-commerce and boost your revenue.
If you’re searching for a reliable Amazon FBA alternative, consider reaching out to a third-party logistics provider like Webinterpret that can assist you with delivering products to your customers quickly while keeping the returns at the minimum.
About Webinterpret
Webinterpret supports merchants selling on big, international e-commerce platforms, such as eBay and Amazon.
Our AI-based solution enables more effective selling through automated listing localization, advertising, and logistics (shipping and returns).
By giving your international customers a complete end-to-end local shopping experience, Webinterpret improves your conversion and helps establish your business globally.
