Session Leader: Robert Casto

Introduction
Returns are a problem that affect all sellers. Defective products, buyers’ remorse, shipping damage; they all are reasons why a sale becomes a return and you end up with a loss versus a profit. Businesses tend to ignore returns because they do not fit their normal business processes which are designed to buy and sell products. This presentation will discuss returns from the perspective of the buyer, the seller, and the platform such as Amazon or Ebay. It will also cover ideas on how to minimize the financial impact of returns, and ideas on how to manage the process.

Process
Getting a product from the customer back to the seller is a complicated process. In retail jargon it is called Reverse Logistics. We will look at the process from each party’s point of view and what happens at each step.

Handling
There are many ways returns can be handled. Depending on the marketplace where an item is sold, each will have rules that need to be followed. FBA is a completely hands-off process where Amazon takes care of the entire process. We will discuss various marketplaces, how returns work, and then dive into FBA and she some light on their process to make it less mysterious.

Reimbursement
Because Amazon handles returns for FBA, there is little a seller can do to stop a return. But there are a number of things that can be done to increase the possibility of getting reimbursed on a return.

Minimize
Various products tend to have more returns than others. We will look at return averages, what are the most common types of returns, and also the most common reasons customers give for returning an item. We will then discuss ways to minimize the frequency of returns, and look at warning signs to avoid potential problems that could cause returns.

Recouping Cost
Returns cost a business money. There is the cost to buy the product, get it shipped to the warehouse, label it, send it to FBA or the customer, and time to deal with the return process itself. To recoup some of these expenses, we will look at potential selling venues for returned items. We will also look at how to tell if a returned item is sellable or not, and at what condition it could be sold under. And we will look at ways to simplify this process so that it doesn’t take away from the main focus of the business which is to buy and sell products.

Outsourcing
It seems that just about everything can be outsourced nowadays. We will look at various outsourcing options, their costs, benefits, drawbacks, and issues to consider when looking at this as an option for your business.