Every once in a while I try to become an Amazon seller through FBA. I sell quality goods without a huge markup.
My latest attempt resulted in 1/3 of the goods being returned because they could be sourced cheaper elsewhere (eg AliExpress) after they were tested, or they were swapped by the buyer with defective goods purchase elsewhere returned (they had heavy wear). In the case where the goods were still functional, the packaging was damaged and I had to pay for the returns.
My conclusion is that amazons liberal return policies only allow something to be sold profitably at a 2-3x markup. Hence everything being garbage.
As a consumer I love liberal return policies, as I can buy something I’m not sure about to try it out. When I was in Colombia, but avoided buying some AirPods because I couldn’t try them on, and once purchased I could not return them. When I buy shoes online , I’ll buy maybe 7 pairs, find the best fit, and return rest.
As a vendor, I can’t imagine dealing with a high percentage of returns. I don’t know what the solution is.
how do you feel about the resource waste of such return policies? Shipping all these items to then return most of them is an insane amount of waste. And sometimes returned items cannot be resold so they are thrown away. Imo there should be clear limits on returns
Amazon prefers that people return goods. Last month, I bought something and immediately on next day price fell a bit. Contacting amazon support to see if they would offer me a partial refund of the difference(as my order didn't still ship), they told me that they don't do that anymore and I should deny the delivery and order at new price. After 2 days of my second order, first order was actually shipped(irrelevant to me at this stage), but the price now fell significantly(~35% of original), so I simply ordered at a new price and waited. Took me around 1.5 month to get my thing, but ultimately, this could be avoided if amazon was nice enough to give me a partial refund.
Also, here in EU, amazon recently reduced their return window, from 30 days to 14 days after receiving, so some limits are being put in place, because some of my friends order a lot of things to make unboxing videos/tiktok and other crap and then return it, which is real waste.
My latest attempt resulted in 1/3 of the goods being returned because they could be sourced cheaper elsewhere (eg AliExpress) after they were tested, or they were swapped by the buyer with defective goods purchase elsewhere returned (they had heavy wear). In the case where the goods were still functional, the packaging was damaged and I had to pay for the returns.
My conclusion is that amazons liberal return policies only allow something to be sold profitably at a 2-3x markup. Hence everything being garbage.
I won’t attempt it again.