How to reduce the amount of customer returns
as an Amazon seller to the least amount possible
Hi, my name's Beau Crabill
leading expert for selling products on Amazon
And in this video, I'll discuss about how to reduce the amount
of returns that happen for you as an Amazon seller
Because let's face it, if you're selling on Amazon
and if you're doing any sort of revenue
you're gonna get returns
You know, for example, I just bought
I actually got some stuff delivered to my house
Some, like silk pillows and some workout equipment
and all these stuff right here
It's not for Spider-Man, it's for me
But, you know, maybe if I don't like it, I'm gonna return it
You know, Amazon, they have a very liberal
lenient, 30-day return policy
And where this issue, I would say, stems from quite a bit
is where you have a lot of sellers who, I don't know
are, kinda have an ego
That maybe you're watching this video
and you're like, oh, I think, you know
the customers just did me dirty
or I have a competitor that's buying my products
In reality, you know, Amazon, especially as of now
in 2020, as I'm making this video
they have become so much more advanced
on protecting their sellers
You know, I'm not gonna lie
at some point, they were definitely like, okay
the customer returns a product, it's done
30-day policy, however, they do get a more
longer time period during the holiday season
So what I wanna talk about in this video is 1, preventing
so you could actually lower the amount
So before you even sell a product
you're gonna less likely get those returns
And then if you are doing FBM
or for some reason, you're getting communications with a customer
how to kinda control and
how to really handle returns from there
So first off, for preventing
I go off at two rules of thumbs
And when someone tells me, oh my gosh
I'm getting a bunch of returns and I'm super afraid of this
Well, it's probably because 1, you're either selling counterfeits
or 2, you are selling products that have very bad reviews
That's where it pretty much stems from
So to prevent yourself from selling counterfeits
I've seen people who liked to just try to justify
why they're selling counterfeits
There's actually a person I'm kinda partnered with
some people who are really big experts in regards to suspensions
And they were telling me a story about how there's this guy
who actually came to him to try to get him unsuspended because
there was these like Halloween costumes and things like that
of a very popular brand
And the guy, he sold some units
but he didn't make as much money as he would like
The guy being, he went to China
and he decided to get replicas and counterfeits of these costumes
and sell them on Amazon
Literally sold like 50,000 units or
It's either $50,000 or 50,000 units, it's a crazy amount
And then of course, the guy got suspended
So, when people are selling counterfeits
usually it's because you knew you did it
But there are some rare cases where you came across
some really bad suppliers or vendors, or you
Also, there's a small percentage of people
who came in and said, Beau
I saw these Hasbro products on alibaba.com
I'm like, great, those are counterfeits
So if you're in my business model, selling name brand products
don't buy from Chinese sources
So that's the first thing, prevent yourself from counterfeits
The second thing's gonna be based off the reviews
Now, I only sell products on Amazon
that are at least over 3.5 stars of reviews
Now, if the product has, let's say, you know
an average of 3 stars, but there's only 4 reviews
I would say, if there's less than 10 reviews
and there's, like less than 3.5
then you may want to go out and actually read the reviews
Why is there an issue?
Maybe it was an FBM seller who was, you know, entirely
just like, they don't know what they're doing
and then it has some mispackaging going on
And the reason why I bring this up
is because if you are selling products that have
like lower than a 3.5 star review
then what's gonna happen is probably
you're gonna get a lot of returns
because maybe it's a default
your funky product that people don't like
Or maybe there's a product that people just
think they ordered the wrong thing up
I know there's a lot of people who sell
Actually, there's a very funny thing
the movie and DVD Borat has really bad reviews
and actually gets returned so much
and it actually leads to people getting suspended
And the reasons why is because Borat
So the movie Borat, it's
If you don't know
I guess if you're just a random person watching it
If like, let's say, you're halfway watching it through the video
and your Aunt comes in, or some family member comes in
and he's like, what is this?
This seems like a pirated version of it
So, it's filmed at a very low quality way
They do it on purpose because it's like, a style like that
So on Amazon, if you literally read the reviews of Borat
It says, oh my gosh, this seems like a pirated version or something
Maybe, but it's just because that's how it's filmed
So reading reviews is very important on that aspect
So that's pretty much how to prevent yourself
Don't sell counterfeits
And sell things that are at least 3.5 stars
and have some amount of reviews
Makes sense?
And then also go and read them
Now, what I wanna talk about is, you know
if you're an FBA seller, that's really all you need to do
If you're selling FBM
Now, if you don't do FBA
I highly suggest to even listen to this because you
at some point, may wanna do FBM
If you're, you know, having someone outsource it for you
or you see more profit with it, is this is where it gets tricky
I actually had a guy taking photos of me
We had a photoshoot yesterday at my house
and some videos, and helping me out with some video stuff
And he told me that he used to work for a guy
that had an e-commerce business
And it wasn't selling on Amazon, but he was selling
directly on his site
And they, he said his rule
'Cause this guy was a, you know
Now that he does some video stuff
he says that he was handling all their
Like, he's pretty much like their assistant position
And he told me there was a 4-step rule
with refunds in their company
Step 1 was, has to, this is really bad
I'm not saying to do this
Don't do this, this is really bad
He said step 1 was, we would ask him, are you sure you want it?
And then step 2 would say, oh, can we send you something for free?
Like some other low-end product
And then step #3 was like, are you sure?
Like, maybe we can just exchange it or
Like, can we just exchange it for you?
And then step 4 was, can we just offer you a 50% discount?
So anyway, that's what some people do
'cause they think that they can just mess with customers
which, in reality, if you've done that before
and if it's worked for you on other platforms
on eBay or on your own site, it's not gonna work on Amazon
You will get suspended
So, remember that Amazon customers are always right
So what I wanna do now is understanding that
I'm actually gonna go into my computer
And if you are doing FBM, or you're an Amazon seller
if you want to update your Return Settings
Because if you're an FBA seller, you actually do not have to have
the same return policy in regards as Amazon
It is by default, but if you're an FBM seller, it's not
So let me go on my computer and show you about those Return Settings
So this is your Return Settings on Amazon
So all you need to do is go to your Settings
and hit Return Settings, and you will get there
Now from here, you can adjust what you wanna do
I will tell you what you probably should do
You don't have to do what I say, but
it would save you a lot of headache
So first off, you know, obviously, you know, receive
like an e-mail format if a return happened
But what I would suggest doing
So you now have a way to authorize the return
You can either say I want to authorize each request
I don't suggest doing that because you'll probably, at some point
'cause you are a human
you will get emotional about some return for whatever
It's like, oh no, they're just crazy, they're just a competitor
I suggest doing this
Or you can just have Amazon authorize all the return requests
Now an issue with that is if someone's not eligible for a return
then they hurt you
'Cause like, if they're asking for a return 6 months down the road
that's actually not within the Amazon policy
But if you had that setting, that'll happen
Or what I do, is I have Amazon automatically authorize
all requests that meet Amazon's policies, something like that
This thing is just, like an optional override
That's just for like, you're, kinda operations
Like understanding organization in your business
on SKU-specific returns
That's, you know, if you want to like, say, oh
only for these iPad chargers, only for these furnitures
or whatever the products
The exact SKUs that you're selling
you could say I want this to be the return policy
for my video games, or for my toys
or for groceries, et cetera, right?
Your return labels
So, I like doing this
I like saying I would like Amazon to provide an unpaid shipping label
This puts the customer the ball in their court
Meaning that you gotta pay to get the product back
Because I ain't gonna give you a return unless you send it back
Alright?
So, I mean, some people say
'Cause by default, it's actually put as
I will provide a pre-paid mailing on this request
Now the issue with that is, customer wants a return
they get a pre-paid shipping label, they ship it out
But now, and so what I do is like, okay
if you actually want a return, go pay the post office $5
Some people don't wanna go do that, right?
And if they don't wanna go do that
then they probably don't actually wanna return the product
Makes sense?
So it's like, it's a pretty ethical thing I would say
It'll definitely save you a lot of money
so I would suggest doing that
Now this last couple of things is
I want Amazon to return merchandise authorization number
or you want yourself to do it
It's just an organizational thing, you just have Amazon do it
Now those are the Return Settings
Now you can also have it be where there are returnless refunds
Meaning that you don't offer a refund on any of those products
Or you will just send a refund without returning a product
'cause maybe it's something that's expired
or maybe it's something that you just don't want back in your warehouse
Then there's the Return Address Settings
That's practically where you want returns to happen
Your warehouse, your office, closet
Maybe back to your supplier if need be
That's practically it, it's all you really need to know