Easy Return Policy

We have found it to be a great way of doing business.

[tootalldave]

In the year 1999 when we first launched on the internet we were taught to believe that we should not accept returns unless they were brand new and high restocking fees seemed to be the thing to do.

Well after years of irate customers and customers who may not have purchased afraid that they might have to return it and be sent to the bad place.

Over 6 months ago started a no questions asked return policy, our sells increased over 100% and we have a bunch of happy customers that even when they did retun an item we found them refering us to friends.

The returns that we do receive are usually in mint condition where as before they seemed to destroy them so they could use the defective item policy.

We're just curious if anyone else has tested this easy return policy with sucess..

[Raymond]

I have tried both "all questions asked" and "no questions asked" return policies. I agree with you, the latter works much better and usually results in happy customers even though they return our products. Occassionally there would be a few bad customers who would exploit this policy, but the number is quite insignificant that I would just accept it as part of the cost of running the business.

[edited by: Raymond at 7:08 am (utc) on Sep. 30, 2006]

[Purposeinc]

My brick and mortar business in which we sell to high end clientele, we have always had a 100% money back guarantee if you state you are unhappy in writing within 7 days. We have someone take advantage of this about once a year.

I recently bought a book at Amazon.com and decided after I got it, that I did not want it after all. I was ready to donate it to a charity, when I saw something on the shipping label about returning it. Not only can you return your purchase for any reason, but they even allow you easily print out a postage paid shipping label for the item. They then deduct the shipping costs from the refund. It saves you a trip to the post office to find out the shipping charges, buy stamps etc. I was so thrilled with the convenience, that I am sure I will buy much more on amazon. They make it easier to return than Nordstroms. So from a guy with no time, I was super stoked about this.

Good job on doubling your sales!

dk

[jwurunner]

Hi,

We have debated trying this for years. Our biggest issue is people could use our product for a weekend party then return it for a full refund. We have no way to resell the used products so they would basically get thrown out. We did a test on eBay. New products sell well. Used don't. Even at .99 .

Another issue that concerns us is abuse of the policy. A customer could buy all the products in a category to test which they like best so they keep onme and we get back 5.

Our current policy is a full refund without a restock fee, but the customer pays return shipping.

[numnutz]

Hi - I am interested in this as well.

However my plan is to offer retuns on all goods but no refund of postage /shipping, customer pays return postage / shipping costs. This deal will be void on new items if seal is broken and void on secondhand (used) items returned damaged. I will also sell photographs, these will be enclosed in a transparent bag and there is a slip of paper secured across the photo to prevent copying.

I cannot tell how this may affect sales so any input would be usefull.

Thanks in advance.

nn :)

[ispy]

This is more difficult to do with high end expensive items priced like cars. To many returns here could put you out of business, or force you expand storage facility. With these types of items there would be a real danger of people returning things if they found a better price elsewhere, something the restocking fee would most certainly discourage.

[tootalldave]

If you remove some of the fears that customers have when buying from you it will increase your sells and even allow you to slightly increase your prices.

A merchant could think of this as a system PayPal had or has where during the checkout your customer can pay a few dollars extra for an return insurance policy so that they know they will get their money back if requested.

You in turn charge what you feel you need to cover the loss due to products you can no longer sell.

In our case we ended up with only a few returned that we could not sell out of hundreds sold.
The ones we can not sell as new we will sell the parts of them and write of the rest on our taxes creating zero losses.

[Purposeinc]

I agree with some of the statements above that a return policy works best when there is a good profit margin in place. If you are selling packs of chewing gum with a one cent profit, then the cost of processing a return will cost you more than the profit on a hundred items. In my brick and mortar business even if 1 out of 10 people asked for their money back, we would still do o.k. I have seen it time and time again when I have asked people to make a multi hundred dollar purchase and they are hesitating, and then I explain that if they are not absolutely thrilled and they tell us within 7 days in writing, we will give them their money back. At that point they almost always say yes, because what do they have to lose.

I am sure Amazon can get away with it because even thought their prices are generally low, their costs for processing refunds is probably very low due to their efficiency.

As always, one has to test to see what the actual return rate would be vs. the increased sales due to offering the return policy.

I am curious to hear what happens with your site if you try it both ways. Make sure to post the results.

dk