How to prevent customers to return items?

[tdavid88]

Hey all,

I have an e-commerce store that sells goods online.

Like every business there are returns.

My question is how do I convince someone to keep an item he wants to return?

I would appreciate to get some techniques that you can share with me from your own experience, Ill share some of them that I'm currently using:

1. first I ask the customer is there is any other item that he would like to exchange to or if he want to upgrade the quality of the item? (Diamond jewelry).

2. if they complain of the quality then I send them a free return label and tell them that the item will go through inspection and I upgrade the quality for free.

3. offer them a discount to keep the order.

thatch pretty much what i'm doing...

if someone can share more with me it would be great:))

[paul woodall]

Hello tdavid88,

You return policy should be clear as to what you don't allow to return. (i.e. don't like the color), but I like your options you suggest.

You should be asking and documenting why they want to return and improve for future. Some ecommerce stores charge back vendors for returns. An option maybe? You can also charge a "re-stocking fee" if they want to return.

All of these course impact future sales as well so you need to see what your competition does to ensure your are competitive

[tdavid88]

I currently have a very good return policy that cover me and I don't charge my customer penny other than the shipping fee.

even though I loss when customer decide to return an I order I must keep them happy otherwise the complaints over the internet will be awful (this was tested) and therefore loosing future customers.

the question is how to convince them to keep the order or at least to replace it with other item - for me a return is like a loose of sale and keeping a customer our customer instead of him returning an item its like a sale... :)

as far as the vendor I can't as i'm the manufacturer

[Specialty Business Checks]

When the customers are buying your products. Make sure they are very detailed as possible so they know exactly what it is they are getting. That helps alot. Offer Live chat for your customers if they have any further questions that they may have about your product/services. Live chat is a wonderful tool to have. If you want to get familiar with live chat. Start off with a trial. You'll have to insert HTML code to your site but is easy to do. Provide support is great to use and starts off at $15 per mth. If you need more detail info including keywords. Upgrade to Whoson for about $30 a mth. They are wonderful to use and more info you can shake a stick at. Bold Chat is ok..but is more expensive to use. ($50 a mth)

[billbenson]

How many returns do you get that this is an issue? I am a distributor selling directly from one manufacturer. They charge me 15% on my cost for returns. If it is a resellable item and I buy another item around the same cost they wave the restock fee. If it is their error, they wave the restock fee. If it is a custom item or an item they won't take it back. Their return policy is pretty strict, but they bend the rules a lot.

I pretty much do the same thing. My terms say most products are custom and can't be returned. If they can be returned, there is a 20% restocking fee. However, I rarely charge the 20%; 10% or 15% at times. More frequently I just eat the fee if something comes back. 95% of the time its an exchange for another item so the fee becomes a non issue.

[alwaysinterested]

The returning of goods would highly depend on the type of items your selling, so giving us an idea of what your selling will help us help you. Like for example custom items like he said before should probably never be returned unless there was a quality issue with the item or for example you spelled somebody's name wrong on an item.