How to lower your return rate on Amazon

Amazon is a fantastic sales platform for home businesses. Not only does it put your products in front of a very wide audience, but Amazon also takes out a huge amount of work that would otherwise be involved. For example, without Amazon, you would need to build your own website and sales platform, as well as maintaining it over time. By using Amazon instead, you can focus entirely on the products you sell and how you sell them.

Like any ecommerce store, Amazon allows customers to return products under certain conditions. If your account has lots of returns against it, a disproportionate number compared to what you sell, you will suffer a number of negative consequences. Amazon enforces these policies strictly in order to deter unscrupulous businesses and individuals from abusing the platform to rip-off unsuspecting customers.

Detailed product descriptions

Describing your products fully and in as much detail as possible will greatly reduce incidents where customers return a product because they feel that it hasn’t lived up to their expectations. Not only will this reduce your return rate, but it is a major pull factor for return custom. If customers know that they can trust you to deliver products that match up to the descriptions, they are more likely to choose to purchase from you over your competitors.

Include dimensions in product images

Some people are very visual, meaning that even if you give them a detailed description of your product using words, they might still have trouble visualizing exactly what it is like. For these people, it is helpful to annotate your product photos with an indication of the product’s dimensions. Not only will more visual people thank you for this, the rest of your customers will also find it helpful in accurately picturing your products.

For smaller products, having an accurate idea of the size and dimensions is important because it will give the customer a good idea of the portability and practicality of the product. For larger products, the dimensions will be crucial in determining whether the customer can practically fit the item in their home.

Include images from multiple angles

One of the most common mistakes that Amazon sellers make, and one which often leads to unnecessary returns, is that they only show one angle of their product in the photos. Customers need a complete view of your product in order to know whether it is suitable for their needs.

From the perspective of a buyer, there is nothing more frustrating than receiving a product, only to turn it over and discover a fatal flaw in the other side. Not only will this lead to returns, it will lead to poor reviews and a loss of trust.

Add a product video

A video can be much more effective than a series of images for showing your product and what it’s capable of. Not only will a video make it easy to show off every angle of your product, it is also an opportunity to demonstrate what it can do.

A video demonstration of your product’s features and capabilities can be a very effective way of increasing sales, while simultaneously reducing the portion of those sales that end up being returned.

Automate FBA returns

Having orders fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) means they will be stored in Amazon warehouses and dispatched from there. This allows them to reach customers much quicker than they would if you were dispatching them yourself. However, now and then, Amazon will make a mistake. This includes incidents where orders are lost or damaged during transit. You may be eligible for refunds on orders when Amazon makes a mistake. Automating this process will ensure you don’t go out of pocket due to circumstances beyond your control.

Pin the best customer reviews

Customer reviews are a very powerful and effective means of selling your products to customers. Whether you are selling on Amazon or through your own dedicated website, customer reviews are an essential part of the process. They won’t just help to build trust and confidence with your customers, but they will demonstrate that you have a thriving business. When customers see that you have lots of positive reviews for your business, they will feel more confident about purchasing from you. They will also be happy to spend a bit more money for the added security.

Often, customer reviews will include information about products that you might not have thought to include. This information is frequently the kind of information that will make or break a customer’s decision to purchase from you.

If you want to be able to make serious money selling through Amazon, either as an individual or a business, you will need to work to reduce the rate of returns you receive. Fortunately, this isn’t difficult to do. As long as you make sure to assist your customers in making fully informed purchasing decisions, you stand a very good chance of keeping your numbers down.

Mark Armstrong
Mark Armstrong
Mark Armstrong is ecommerce sales manager from Australia. Sometimes he writes short guides on anything that has to do with online sales and with that tries to give his small contribution to the community.
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