How to Handle Returns

This is one of those questions that comes up relatively often in print on demand communities like my Ryan's Method: Passive Income Facebook Group:

How do I handle returns?

As the owner of the business, we have a choice, we can:

1. Option #1: Enforce a strict no-returns policy
2. Option #2:Accept a return & submit a refund
3. Option #3:Refund the customer & let them keep the product

Option #3 might seem like the most ridiculous approach, but it's the one I most commonly use - let me explain.

Protect Your Seller Feedback At All Costs

Whether online or offline, your business' reputation is everything.

I repeat:

Your businesses' reputation is EVERYTHING!

I've mentioned many times how print on demand is a long-term business model, and being willing to refund a customer at your expense to protect your seller account is an expense we should all be willing to accept.

On any platform outside of Amazon I will also let customers keep their product if they're unhappy with it.

Often times, the seller is responsible for covering the return shipping costs, so we actually save money be avoiding incurring that fee.

If a defective product is returned... we can't re-sell it anyways! So let them keep it.

Handling Returns on Amazon

Selling FBM print on demand products through Amazon Seller Central is a great way of tapping into Amazon's massive online traffic that comes to the site with the intent to buy.

Unlike Etsy, they have an A to Z guarantee which will protect customers that purchase from you & I no matter what.

The article states:

This shouldn't deter your from selling on Amazon, just understand that sometimes customers will use this to return a perfectly good product, simply because they changed their mind about buying it (after receiving it).

I recommended changing the default settings on Amazon for returns.

If you opt to follow my instruction, it will save you some money & protect your seller feedback on Amazon.

By default, when a customer requests a return on Amazon, it should just auto-approve the refund & then it auto-approves their return shipping label (at your expense) as well.

The benefit: You'll get the product returned to you

The drawback: Re-selling it is a pain in the butt that often isn't worth the time & you have to pay for the return shipping label

If you follow my configuration for returns, you'll at least save money on return shipping & time on re-shipping returned orders:

1. Go to the Return Settings page in Seller Central (Settings > Return Settings)
2. General Settings
   You'll notice that all 3 options say "I want Amazon to automatically authorize..." & this is becuase in selling on Amazon, we relinquish quite a bit of control of our business to them. It's the cost of business, unfortunately. Failure to adhere to Amazon's rules could mean having our seller account terminated.
   

   * click to expand

3. Returnless Refund Settings
   Take it from me, if you think it's a good idea to have all of your refunds sent to you & you achieve some success selling POD products on Amazon, you'll eventually end up with a mountain of returned products sitting in your home, taking up space... it's not worth it.
   

   * click to expand

4. Return Address Settings
   Set the address that you want returns from customers sent to
   

   * click to expand

Re-Shipping Returned Amazon Orders

If you do opt to accept returns and plan on shipping them out to future customers who may buy the same product that the other customer returned, you can follow this workflow:

(This will save you money on shipping by buying shipping at Amazon's steeply discounted rate)

1. Following an order, you'll get an email from Amazon containing the product info.
   If it's a product you've had returned & want to ship manually, click the link to the order
   

   * click to expand

2. Within Seller Central, click "Buy Shipping" & you should also click "Print packing slip"
   You'll want to inculde the packing slip inside the package, and the shipping label outside
   

   * click to expand

3. You may need to click "Change parcel dimensions" and input the dimensions of your package
   Under "Weight" you'll include the weight of the package in pounds + ounces.
   Then select a shipping service. If you include "Declared value" it will increase the shipping costs, so I leave it blank if shipping low-value goods
   

   * click to expand

4. Last, print the shipping label & tape it to the outside of the package & ship it out!

I'm going to wrap this up with a reminder:

Protect your seller account feedback - do anything & everything to keep it POSITIVE!