This week we have with us Scott Margolius who has some great tips about how you can analyze your returns and refunds. Scott is helping other sellers through Az product research – www.indbl.com and his consulting business – www.feedbackrepair.com.
If you follow the steps detailed below, you can perform some in-depth analysis on the reasons why customers are returning your products.
You will have access to the reasons stated by customers versus what the real reasons are versus how the product was viewed by Amazon when it was inspected upon return.
If you utilize this information, it might help you with culling items out of your inventory that may be potentially damaging your metrics.
In addition, you might be able to use the information to defend your situation in the event that a specific product or your account gets suspended by Amazon.
Pull up SellerCentral.Amazon.com
Next scroll to the top of the page and in the middle click on Reports and then choose Fulfillment Reports.
You might be able to use this link to get there directly if you are signed into your Amazon account already: Fulfillment Reports.
Then navigate to the left-hand side of the page, and near the bottom select Returns under Customer Concessions.
Select the Download Tab, and range you would like to see, (ie. the last 365 days). Then click on Request Download.
Instead of selecting View Online you can review the report on your computer screen. When you select the Download option, you are provided with a .txt file. You will need to get the information imported into Excel in order to read it correctly. Open up Excel and search for the file which is usually found in your computer’s Downloads folder. Then open the text file. The Import Wizard will open. The radio button for Delimited should be left selected. Then click on Next. The Tab box should be kept selected. Then click on the Next button one more time and then select Finish. Save this as an Excel file to a location where you will be able to find it. Next review and sort the information inside the spreadsheet.
The information contained inside the report is very powerful since you frequently can see whether or not the system is being gamed by a buyer in order to receive free return shipping or to get returns.
Here is something you will often notice immediately when you look at this report in detail. In the Reason (given by the buyer for the reason for return) column, “Item is defective” was marked. Yet, under the Status (what Amazon determined upon inspection) column you might see that “Unit returned to inventory” was marked. That discrepancy demonstrates a clear and blatant misuse of the returns system since you can see that when Amazon got the returned product they didn’t find anything wrong with it. After it was inspected, they returned it to inventory.
Take steps right now in order to avoid this kind of fraud by ensuring that you have a good insert that is compliant with the T.O.S.. Help prevent your metrics from being damaged by buyer theft and protect yourself from an account suspension. The insert gives your buyer direct and immediate access to you so that you can serve them first and divert them from Amazon. If they know you will offer a no-questions-asked refund, they may never contact Amazon with their complaint. Check out our custom insert option. We can also provide a personalized professional Metrics Review for your account as well as numerous other custom solutions.
Scott can be reached by email at scott@feedbackrepair.com, through his websites www.feedbackrepair.com, https://indbl.com/home, as well and via Skype: sbm400 and https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottmargolius
Disclaimer: The information and views presented in this blog post are the opinions of the guest author, and not necessarily those of 888 Lots.
