(I) Return and Exchange
Return and exchange require inspection and acceptance of each item, which is labor-intensive. The returned goods need to be reorganized, cleaned, packaged, labeled, inspected and repaired. Some of them are difficult to assemble and identify, which will reduce processing efficiency; when the tag or logo is lost, it is necessary to search from the SKU library or wait for feedback from overseas sellers; if the returned goods are defective and cannot be resold, they can only be placed in the bad goods area for destruction: if they can still be resold, they will be put on the shelves for the second time and prioritized for matching sales orders for shipment. The hidden cost of returns is too high. To reduce the return rate as much as possible, when encountering customer feedback on product problems, customer service should first use coupons and other methods to appease consumers.
(II) Return and relabel
Assist customers to return goods and repackage the goods according to instructions, print the corresponding product labels according to the relevant barcode standards, and paste the labels in the standard area according to the platform warehouse requirements, and then ship them to the FBA warehouse or designated address.
Return and relabel generally requires 13 processes.
(III) Bad and unsalable goods
The freight is high and the procedures are complicated. There is basically no need to ship bad and unsalable goods back to the country. If the unsalable goods can still be cleared, it is necessary to “cut losses” in time; out-of-season and out-of-warranty goods may become waste when the residual value does not cover the warehouse rent and can only be destroyed; in FBA, defective returns will be classified as unfulfillable inventory and can no longer be sold in the FBA way. Europe and the United States have relatively strict pollution control laws, and the recycling and destruction of mobile phones and 3C electronic products also require an environmental protection fee.
In response to this situation, service providers specializing in handling sellers’ “scrapped inventory” and unsalable “dead goods” have also emerged in the overseas market. Therefore, when using overseas warehouses, merchants should pay attention to concentrating sales resources, promoting hot sales of products, timely sales, and accelerating turnover. Cash flow is more important than profit. Nowadays, FBA charges overdue warehouse rent for goods that have been in stock for a long time.