Amazon updates its return policy again, and sellers are complaining...

Recently, Amazon issued an announcement that it will launch a return performance dashboard on October 21, 2021 to improve the seller's self-delivery return experience . Amazon said that the return performance dashboard will help sellers monitor return performance and proactively resolve return-related issues .

The Returns Performance Dashboard will focus on three key returns performance metrics :

Return requests approved in less than 24 hours

Total number of rejected return requests

Return-related buyer contact rate

In addition, the Return Performance Dashboard was launched along with the Return Analysis page, a tool that helps sellers identify any product listings that are experiencing return issues and take action on them. This page will help sellers identify the top return issues for each product listing so that appropriate actions can be taken to improve the return experience. Sellers can also visit the pop-up page in Manage Returns to view a summary of return performance indicators.

Sellers expressed their feelings about Amazon's updated "Return Performance Dashboard"↓

Seller A : Compared to other sites, Amazon customers often do not select a true return reason when returning items, and now that Amazon automatically approves all return requests that meet Amazon guidelines, some performance indicators are not under our control at all. Even though most items have clear descriptions, buyers still choose the item not as described. Perhaps there should be a dashboard to evaluate specific buyers and let them continue to exploit the system.

Seller B : I question this new metric. Most metrics are beyond our control. Amazon intentionally makes returns easier without making any attempts to retain or resolve issues, which results in return rates on the platform being 4-10 times higher than we see anywhere else .

Seller C : It is precisely because of the platform's policies that our indicators are now hit by customers abusing the return policy ...

Obviously, sellers are not satisfied with the return performance indicator launched by Amazon. Overall, the indicator is indeed intended to continuously improve the return satisfaction and efficiency of the platform and reduce the return rate of the Amazon platform. However, for sellers, the rules issued by the platform will only continue to allow customers to abuse the return policy and return goods at will. In this way, the sellers will be the ones who suffer.

Amazon Announcement

Return Policy Changes

Sellers complain