Amazon’s Plan To Fix Its Multi-Billion Dollar Returns Problem 

Amazon should make a used category on their website, that’s marked down 50% but can no longer be returned if bought ,as is🤔

Frankly, making the returns easy and remove the hassle for the customer and the cost is absolute key to Amazons success. I wouldn't buy even half the things I buy on Amazon if I wasn't able to return it if it was something wrong with it etc. Take shoes or clothes for example, often you don't know how they fit until you have tried them. Then there is electronics etc.

They need a review process where they verify listings. For example if returns for a particular item reach a certain percentage then Amazon should review the listing to ascertain the issue.

I wondered how they could possibly do "zero waste" and then I heard the magic word, donating. They will donate their previous waste items, and recipient of said donation will then throw it away. That's just waste with extra steps.

It's not "consumerism", it's Amazon reselling third-rate products, often under their own name, as well as providing a sales platform for shady companies to charge you for garbage on a massive scale in hopes you won't bother to try and return it.

The best way to lower returns is to directly deal with why people return in the first place. People return purchased goods because it is not what they thought the product would be. To prevent this from happening the item photos has to be good enough that people can see from all directions and angles and the dimensions of the product has to be very well label. Then the description has to describe everything about the features and its uses. I find most products on Amazon are lacking complete descriptions. And even when it is label it is often wrong. If Amazon just invests more money in product listing, the number of returns would naturally be much lower and dealable.

In the past I was an Amazon seller. The products I sold were custom made and drop-shipped from the printer. If for any reason the customer didn't like the product or changed their mind or overspent and needed a refund, that money was taken from my Amazon earnings. It was impractical for the item to be sent to me as I don't live in the US and there were often personalized. This is going back a few years and the return policy is even more lenient. For a small business person, working on small profit margins a high return rate can destroy their business. Amazon doesn't lose any money - the seller does.

I very rarely return anything. However, I like knowing that I can if necessary. Before I buy anything I do my homework by researching the product to make sure it’s what I want and need.

*Great video. We all strive towards financial stability and a better life. It is easy to achieve this through the right investment, by living frugally and budgeting. I’m glad I learnt early in life to work hard for financial freedom*

Stewie Griffin said it way back before this video in family guy.. “Most of what America is now is just boxes going back and forth “ 😄

I think they're overlooking one aspect, make it so that the customer knows exactly what they're getting so they dont think about returning. More information of the product, more images, videos etc.

Just have box that you can click that say "AS IS No Returns." And if you click that box you get the item cheaper. That would stop returns in a hurry.

Kudos to the returns lady on evading questions like a pro!

Amazon delivery driver, currently delivering packages as I watch this video. What's insane to me is that everyday I'll usually have one to five packages that are being returned to the warehouse, and there's 200 drivers that all experience the same thing on a daily basis. We're talking about returns but it surprises me that they didn't talk about the fact that customers cancel orders and the orders are still shipped processed and loaded into Vans despite having been canceled before my route even starts. It's insane how much waste this company produces and how little everyone gives a damn except the highest paid people, who paint a facade as if they are taking every step to do anything about the absolute devastating circumstances pertaining to waste and returns

I actually work at an Amazon return center it’s a crazy amount of stuff that just gets disregarded

I'm a seller on AMZ until the end of this year when I will be moving back to Ebay. The whole 'you can keep it' attitude gets paid for by sellers, not out of AMZ's ever bulging coffers. Ebay does not have this problem. The non-profits in the article are the AMZ sellers!

the most environmentally responsible thing I did this year was to cancel my amazon subscription. I canceled it when I noticed that in everything that I ever ordered, I was constantly disappointed by the quality. They take advantage of the online platform to sell cheap low quality garbage, sometimes selling worse quality versions of things you could buy from brick and mortar stores under the same brand name. Their "returns problem" is entirely their own fault.

Returns are an inherent part of online shopping. Merchandise doesn't always look as advertised, doesn't fit perfectly, or doesn't function as intended. I find this to be far less of an issue with things I inspect and buy in person at a brick and mortar store.

This must be a joke: the companies know the percentage of products that will be returned. Guess who pays for that... Yes: you that don't return anything. The price we pay for products includes the percentage that will be returned. And Amazon profits twice from the same products when it resells them in pallets.

I wouldn’t return anything if listings were accurate. When a description and pictures show something _completely_ different from the cheap Chinese-made crap that I actually get, yeah it’ll be returned immediately.

Usually the stuff we return is due to quality issues. Amazon sells a ton of Chinese garbage, I just sent back a pair of $15 HDMI cables because they did not work. Last week we returned some double insulated coffee glasses because they filled up with water (in between the glass layers) when put in the dishwasher for the first time.

The problem is that Amazon sells junk quality products or it isn't as described or it's counterfeit. It's too easy to become a seller and it's too easy to skate by with low quality products. Other retailers have started to accept junk products. I've returned more stuff to Costco in the last two years than in the past decade before.

They should resell at a discount after holding it for a few weeks/months lol Like a thrift version of Amazon to help citizens with the sky high inflatíon.

Amazon should have a seperate review window for why users made a return. That will filter a lot of people fron purchasing the item, although it may impact Amazon’s revenue.

The issue is Amazon allows a flood of sellers onto their platform. This means lots of counterfeit goods which leads itself to returns. If the product I am buying is made of low quality, getting pumped up by fake reviews, and not as described, of course people are going to be issuing returns. That's the issue with Amazon: They don't exactly have the best reputable sellers. I bet if you do a rate of return of Amazon Basics items vs their counterfeit counterpart, you would see a much lower return rate on the Basics items. Same with name brands listed on Amazon. And it's foolish to believe that the stuff Amazon donates to these third-party centers aren't selling them. I guarantee they are keeping and selling the stuff worth doing so. Also, Amazon already charges customers for that return cost. It's all built in to the product, prime membership, etc., No seller is foolish enough to continue selling if it isn't profitable so they are clearly earning enough $ to justify the returns. Does returns eat into their margin? Yes. But that ease of return also allows them to generate massive amounts of sales.

Oh how I wish I could show the amount of waste in the fulfillment centers. It’s mind boggling.

If Amazon were to offer their crap directly to local thrift shops at deep discounts if they can pick it up I'd say that would be very sustainable.

I don't get why this is a problem. I know so many people who buy stuff just to return it after. When I buy something, I know I want it and keep it forever.

i read about a man in his 50s that started investing in stocks and real estate, then retired in 2years with over $6million, that right there is my utmost goal and I'd really appreciate clues and tips on how to reach this goal within 5years

My returns are mostly because there is no quality control. The only way to know if something is good is by waiting for hundreds of customer reviews which are paid for by the seller. Amazon needs a “certified product” label that can only be given by submitting your product to independent review by Amazon judges.

I wise they do a story on how Amazon sends you already damaged items. Over the years I have received several things from Amazon that are broken or completely damaged right out the box. And I don't mean the shipping box was damaged... For many of my items the Amazon shipping box was in perfect shape...but when opening the box the inside content is broken. And you can tell that they packed it that way. For instance I had some things that said DO NOT BEND... And amazon bent it up and shoved it in a box and shipped it to me.

Just cancelled my membership yesterday $152 is too much just for Prime

Purchased disposable briefs for my husband who passed away a couple of days after receiving package. I tried to return, was told to keep and was promptly issued a full refund. I donated them to a local medical supply charity since the box was unopened.

How about partial returns. I’ve had several purchases lately where one of the items were broke but the duplicate 4 or more were just fine. I’d be willing to take just part of my money back for that one broken item versus returning the lot and repurchasing wasting time and fuel on both sides.

Recycling should be a last resort, not the "dumpster".

The business I work for sells on Amazon, eBay and own website. Amazon returns are 4x higher than the other platforms, Amazon created this problem by making returns so easy and mostly free to the customer

There is also a borrowing problem with Amazon customers in particular because of their easy return policy. There were litterally whole Tiktok and redit posts on how to do this. As a handmade seller on the platform among other selling platforms, I ONLY have this issue with Amazon clients. They buy a product, use it at an event, then return it for a refund. Which comes out of my small businesses pocket because we cover the shipping costs. It's a problem for multiple reasons. I totally get needing to return some things, but when it's blatantly obvious that people are abusing the system. Something needs to change.

Though a summary of the logistics of Amazon Returns, it exposed that Amazon counts it's returned items, donated to "charities" that refurbish/sell them, as tax writeoffs. This must count for a lot, given that Amazon does not pay taxes. It benefits directly from a system it setup, part of the easy lifecycle that it makes available to the consumer. It profits from a problem it creates. It externamize and individualize the responsibility of a system it created.

It's nearly impossible to make a good informed decision when buying clothes and shoes without trying them on. This kind of item should be banned from Amazon and online stores. Amazon and online sales should be only for books, electronics and technology, kitchen supplies, etc.. Clothing, shoes, linens and anything involving a fabric, texture, size, etc.. Should be banned simply because the odds of matching what you see on the screen with a perfect fit it's highly unlikely. As for clothing returning to the retail, shopping mall, experience of the 90's and trying stuff it'll be better for the environment and maybe even create jobs. Returning should be only for damage items not because you thought the color was wrong.

Bad product/Bad online description = Returns

they never mention, the "amazon mystery box" you can buy for 50 or 100 bucks filled with electronics, you might get a 1400$ laptop, or 600$ game console but most the time you end up with a box of useless items not barely worth the money for the box

If Amazon discontinued their Free Prime Shipping & Returns, I would drop it in a HeartBeat! The Prices are already skyrocketing. When I can now find an item at my Local ACE Hardware for the same price as Amazon, then things are heading in the wrong direction for Amazon!!

I guess 20:80 rule applies here. 20% of the consumers represents 80% of the returns.

Ebay used to have it so there was allowed a fee to be charged by the sellers if someone bought something and tried to return it without a valid reason that had to be proven, but policy changes has basically destroyed this option for the most part. Might want to bring back this model if you want less returns of products as well as less losses for those third party sellers that usually get hit the hardest.

There's the shady third-party seller thing with subpar quality products going on for sure, but the ease of the online commerce also brought the special kind of abusers of "buy, use, and return claiming refund" types of consumers. As a seller myself, I have seen an increase in refund claims for "undelivered parcels" even when GPS and photo evidence is there to prove otherwise. Another increasingly common issue is returns with "ordered wrong item/colour" type of customers, I mean, you gotta be an idiot, how do people even shop around if they are willingly buying the wrong item?! After chatting with some of the customers I've realised that people have no idea how logistics and online shopping actually work, the majority of customers are oblivious to the freight, storage, shipping, and human labour and costs associated with that, let alone the ecological factors associated with the entire market.

What would make this more useful is looking at the carbon footprint comparison of physical returns with traditional physical stores and B2C processes to that of Amazon.

I bought a full length mirror recently and was disappointed it arrived shattered so I had to “return” it. If the delivery drivers didn’t smash the merchandise, that would save on returns. They refunded me but I have to get rid of a huge shattered mirror myself. The whole thing could have been avoided.

Maybe Amazon should start with how they package items in the first place. Whenever I order a book on Amazon I expect to have to return it because the packaging of the item for shipping is horrible, and the book normally comes damaged due to it being unprotected during the shipment process. I understand as a consumer that items will have "shelf wear", but Amazon is horrible when it comes to ordering books because of the lack of protection they give to the packaging of the item. Most likely a lot of other items come damaged too because of a lack of packing properly for shipment.

Amazon should also put into place a price match policy. Not prime matching other competitors but with themselves. I see myself purchasing an item for $300 and the next two days, it’s $270 on Amazon. Would be nice to just get $30 back without wasting

Small things make a huge difference in a company that size. For example, I am an Amazon handmade seller, and one thing that always irks me is, the very first paragraph on a receipt is how to return the item and the second is how to relieve leave a review from the seller . What would happen if they just reversed those two? Make it less easy to just jump to the conclusion at once that they should return the item. Small things add up!

Imagine if we sized all clothes and shoes like men's pants. Think of how many returns would not be made the world over from clothing alone.

What would happen if people were allowed a certain limited number of free returns before then having to pay shipping, and then after a certain number, having to pay restocking fees after that? In that way, the people who abuse the process would pay but the rest of us could still return the occasional problem item.

Coddling customers = frivolous returns People order multiple clothing items with the intent to return them because they CAN, What did they do before Amazon? Were they naked? This new convenience is nice, but at what cost to the market and the environment?

They're fine with buying 9 dresses and only keeping one? I've heard of people getting banned from Amazon if your returns are too high.

"a $10 bag of crap..." I was so focused on the seriousness and then that happened. 😂

I stumbled on a shop called Crazy Hot Deals yesterday and they sell the Amazon returns it looks like. They sell them from $7 to $2 for most things. It's a messy store and I won't be coming back...but so many do and it is the second life for the returns it seem

I work at an online auction house. We auction off Amazon, Costco, Home Depot, and other major retailer's products. Many returns end up being returns from bad people. We find all sorts of "cheated the system" returns. Old products in new packaging is quite common. Sometimes key parts are missing from high end items. No matter the condition of the returns we end up with a bunch of garbage items because people are dishonest.

This is why I don’t use Amazon…. I know some businesses I buy from uses them… but I avoid wherever possible

Translation: What's good for business is not always good for us.

I tend to return items that are made in China when the country of origin is not found in the sellers Amazon description. My advice to Amazon, to cut down much of the returns, is to simply require sellers to clearly label the “country of origin” in their product descriptions. This video does not cover the percentage of defective, substandard, and/or mislabeled Chinese made goods that are returned each year. Since the Covid pandemic, there has been an increase of negative reactions to Chinese made products in the Amazon customer reviews I have read.

Amazon should stop selling junk

That is why i am a prime member. If there is no easy return I wouldn’t be a prime member. I shopped $30k from Amazon yearly. I maybe return $4k of it. I am very happy with Amazon return policy.

Order 9 dresses to keep 1??? That’s criminal. Just wrong.

If they want to reduce returns they should probably focus on sizing. Making sure that shoppers can as accurately as possible choose the right size. Most of my returns occur because the product was too big or too small.

If your returns are bigger than the us defense budget I'm sure you could be donating the useful stuff to homeless people and organization ,

First and more foremost more honest and accurately detailed descriptions!

they make it too easy, I believe people should think about what they buy for .0001 seconds before they place an order and not order 14 different things to find 1 item they actually want maybe once there are electric delivery vehicles but currently.

This is the problem with brand names going away. Garbage in = garbage out.

I have never ordered anything from Amazon- I do order a lot of products online and have never returned anything; however, I have thrown a few things away because of various quality issues.

Paying for return shipping is the worst. I bought a keyboard on Newegg several years ago, didn't like it had to ship it back. They had Restock fee back then of 15% so there I lost 15% of my money. Returning it via UPS cost a lot of money. In the end I lost half the money I spent buying that keyboard. This is why I like Amazon, free returns and no hassle and no restock fees or arguing with customer service. On top of that I love how Amazon often deal with late packages or packages that could be assumed lost. They send out a new replacement and often if the original package show up you get to keep it. Even if at time they say they want it back you can just tell them in chat that the Amazon delivery just drop the package so you couldn't refuse it and also you don't want the hassle of going to post office etc. They usually just say, if it shows up, feel free to keep it.. I got myself an extra HDD valued at $140 because of that. So I have 2 HDD , 1 for free and not cheap either.

Amazon can reduce the number of days eligibility for return to 7 days or 2 weeks. They should also display some sort of message on their website informing the environmental impact of return. If this reduces the return by even 1 % of their returns then it is worth a try. Sometimes customers also need to be taught the right consumer behaviour.

Amazon's problem is largely managing its sellers to standardize. If Amazon demanded some quality and standards, returns would be less. This is ESPECIALLY true in terms of women's clothing, underwear, bras, shoes, and so on. Sellers use Asian sizing and it's a gamble to buy their crap. If Sellers want to sell in the US, they should have to adhere to Amazon's own US size charts. If I could know things will fit with more probability, I would buy more and return less. Also, even some of the brand names sell lesser quality crap on Amazon, the sell "imperfect" or knockoff items. I was just looking at Hanes T-shirts for women. I have worn Hanes T-shits for years, so I know how they should fit and their quality. But if you read reviews, people are getting mis-sized items, ill fitting items, items that have seams falling apart on the sides of T-shirts and in armpits. It's obvious, these are not up to the quality of Hanes clothing you'd get at say, Macy's, JC Penny, and so on. Also, sellers post inaccurate titles, sellers try to trick buyers with misleading photography, post inaccurate colors, or have their models hold their arms or stand a certain way to hid fit issues. I bought a lovely designed ribbed sweater over the winter, but when I put it on, the fabric content was very poor, and the ribbing made the sweater bulge in very unattractive ways, giving the appearance I had a "spare tire" around my waist. When I went back and looked at the model, she was holding her arms to camouflage what was happening at her waist. The model was bone skinny, so you know if it was bulging at her waist, on a more athletic built woman like myself, it would look even worse. I only noticed it and had to look hard at the picture because of the model's arms bent at the waist and her hands touching in front of her body. Once I noticed it, it was an odd stance and clearly positioned to hid how crappy the fabric was. Completely designed to be misleading. That is not the buyer's fault.

Imaging how much CO2 emitted throughout the entire process of producing them and it decompose.

I do think that the next step for Amazon is to shift back toward the store model, but in a new way. Have their giant Amazon warehouses, but adjacent to that, have a showroom floor. Let companies with products _lease_ that showroom space to show off large items that people would want to personally interact with before buying, or that would be prohibitive to return. Amazon would be proving them the space to demo their products to the customers. This would be more like an Ikea than a Walmart, something you wouldn't have in every town, but within driving distance for most people. For clothing, they would keep popular stuff in stock, and you could try it on in store. you could also "store order" an item off their website, have it delivered to the store rather than your home, try it on in the store, and if you didn't want to keep it, then it would remain in their custody and they could use their normal logistics to get it to another new customer, rather than considering it "damaged goods." This method could offer a discount to the consumer that the ship to home model would not.

Amazon *is only* following Costco's lead. Costco may not have the volume of sales as Amazon, but they also don't have the volume of fake products/false advertisements/general counterfeits as Amazon.

They really should better incentivize the repurchase of used/returned goods. I always check to see if there’s a used option before I make a purchase. I got my rollerblades, a Dutch oven, and a dry erase board used this year, and I’m happy with every purchase. Most people would rather have new items though. Since we are doing amazon a favor by repurchasing these items, they really should consider a larger discount on those used items. A couple of dollars off isn’t enough to get most people to choose the used option, even if it’s in great condition. If this stuff is going to get thrown away or donated at some point anyway, why not just sell them for a 50%+ discount? Everybody wins! What’s the harm in that? Currently, it seems like amazon is just trying to make as much money as possible from these items that will eventually be garbage anyway, and it reeks of greed.

I cancelled my Amazon Prime 2 years ago. Best decision ever

No matter what you said about Amazon. Amazon have the best and the hassle free return among all . That's why I love shopping from Amazon only. Easy, simple and reliable online shopping site

Most of those returns os probably from scammers replacing the items with something similar thats broke.Maybe Amazon needs to start inspecting the items before giving refunds.

shoe sizing and clothing sizing differ with different brands, so yeah, it makes sense to make it easer to return those types of items.

Just like an a$$hat to have buildings full of stuff they are doing absolutely nothing with or destroying rather than DONATING it to homeless shelters, programs for kids, ETC.

This behavior is obviously passed along to the consumer. in higher prices If a seller has to eat a 10% return rate and potential losses due to unresellable prodcuts, this is factored into the price he charges. So basically returns are a socialized cost. Serious buyers pay more for the item even though they never do returns, to pay for those that abuse and heavily use returns.

I've been buying Amazon returns at local auctions for the past few months. It works well for me. I got a perfect exercise bike for $4 when it costs $200 new. It keeps it out of a landfill and gives it another life.

I can’t even tell you how many Christmas trees got returned to the UPS Store this January that were likely bought on Black Friday and had until February 1 to return it. It’s honestly sickening how many Amazon returns we get. Probably 90% of our business and we offer a dozen services.

The solution is simple. All the sellers should have an insurance deposit of half-year sales. And the sellers should take care of returns. And if the seller would send those to a landfill, - it means that their product is junk. For each ended product on the landfill, the seller should get a penalty and some money away from their deposit. Sellers should start looking for high-quality products and not for junk to make a one-day profit. Strict return policies should fix it. But Amazon wouldn't do it. Guess why? Cause they are making a profit by selling cheap replicas of everything.

In My Opinion, I think Amazon should investigate reasoning behind all the returns. For me, I'd say most of my returns are usually for a defective item. If we make items more durable and to built to last, at least that category, for the honest people, would be eliminated. To encourage people to actually thouroughly read descriptions and ensure that's the item they want, the free returns I think could be modified. If the description was accurate and nothing is wrong with the item, a return fee should apply (partial refund). Of course if there is something wrong that's on the company then it should be completely free. What do you guys think would help?

I don't take advantage of returns and understand it can be a burden on the company and planet but if a product is not as advertised and is over priced junk then I do wish to return easily

20% of the total sales in returns is enough to say that a walk in store is by far better than an online store . In a walkin store a customer can verify the product ,get a good demo of the product from the stores sales agent before making the purchase , looking at some of these return figures . One might argue having a walkin store can be more operationally cheaper than the online store. I have not added the logistical costs.

It's not a fix. It's redistribution. Amazon needs to adopt Universal Sizing Standard. Metric to which all apparel is measured/sized.

They should look at how many times a product is getting returned

I used to have an Amazon account and they couldn’t get things to my PO Box as we don’t have mail delivery to our home. They kept sending me stuff that won’t get to me. After awhile it was a game and I probably had hundreds of items returned. I even called them and they said they would get it right, but they didn’t so I kept playing the return game. At this point I gave up on them but still played the game ordering hundreds of dollars of things watching them get returned. What if funny is I always got eBay items delivered with no problems.

You have to keep following up several times with Amazon to get credit for your returns. The people that don't are giving Amazon free money.

The two problem i know about why people return products is that the item is not advertise as in description for example portable power bank advertise as 50,000mah but when actually test it is 10,000mah. The second problem is people tend to buy product that had good reviews but some products are bunch of fake good reviews therefore people end up returning the item...

Every two weeks we have returns day. It's quicker to get the item. Easier to inspect it in person. And easy to return.

I had to return a 68 pound book case because one of the mdf side panels was broken. Sent pictures and they wanted it shipped back for a refund. Local UPS took the broken box with all the pieces and gave me a receipt. I cant Imagine they actually repackaged and shipped that bookcase back to the seller or what it cost if they did

Amazon should stop selling certain things like clothes/dresses whatever u call , Shoes/footwear, Watches,Spectacles etc these kind of things we can only know when we try at retail store or shops etc. Remaining things people won't return as they have clear idea before buying. Please don't waste valuble resources & also don't pollute Earth. 🙏

Wow great information

I brought a vacuum sealer from Amazon and it blew up the moment I turned it on. I have no idea how to even start to send it back from Australia to America

The secondary market and donating them often does a poor job of getting items properly utilized. This means many of them STILL end up in the landfill unused.

Instead of burning it, they should simply have a storage room auction program. Load all the returns in a “black box” and let people bid on it.