Recently, in many cities in the United States, people can often be seen standing in long lines with various things in their hands.Is this the checkout area of a supermarket?No, this is Amazon, etcE-commerce platformA special return area for holiday products."Holiday returns have always been a major problem we faceAll orders may be zeroed directly. "Introduction by the seller Bell.Many consumers bought Christmas gifts on Amazon and then gave them to their relatives and friends. At this stage, except for a few returns, most of the sellers' money should be safe.However, during the Christmas shopping season, the goods that were bought as gifts and transferred to others have become a "disaster area" for returns.A large number of sellers suffered, even lost a lot of money.It turns out that if the person receiving the gift is "dissatisfied" with the product, he or she can take the shopping receipt to Amazon's offline return point to return it, or change it to the product he or she likes.As long as you hold a small ticket,Even if it is not the buyer himself, it can also be returned and replaced at the offline return point.In fact, many people choose to return the goods and turn them into cash.Under this return mechanism, after big holidays such as Black Five Online One, Christmas Day and New Year's Day, offline return points will line up long return lines.
(The picture shows a gift recipient waiting in line for return)According to the experience of previous years, the return tide after the festival is often very turbulent. In order to better handle and respond to returns, Amazon and other major e-commerce platforms will set up offline return points to provide consumers with return services.In this case, it is convenient for buyers to return goods, but it increases the return rate of sellers."For the products given as gifts on general holidays, a small ticket without price will be placed in the gift box for the person who actually gets the goods (gifts) to return with the ticket. But since last year, we have asked the supplier not to put small tickets in all products. It is feared that the products will be returned," Bell said.Bell's experience is not an exception. This year's Christmas retreat is still surging.Lin Man, the seller, said reluctantly that the products sold during Christmas this year have only been sold for a few days,Has been100%It's back."I know that the return rate will not be too low, but I didn't expect to be fully refunded. Now I don't know what the significance of this busy season is."Lin Man introduced that consumers can return orders from November to December by January 31 at the latest.Many buyers choose to return their products after finishing their household productsMany returned products will become basically unsalable and can only wait for Amazon to destroy them. In this way, the loss caused by a single return may be compensated by the profits of five orders."This means that only during Christmas this year,How many products are sold, we have to bear5XLoss.”Lin Man believes that this situation has hit sellers too hard. Next year, we may not participate in the promotion of Black Five Network One, Christmas and other festivals.As far as the overall e-commerce industry is concerned, the average return cost last year was 59% of the price of goods, while this year it has become 66%, an overall increase of 7%. (Data source: CBRE Optoro report)Guo Gang, another seller, reported that the return rate soared in the days since the end of Christmas.The annual returns are not as many as these days."I'm used to it all the year round. I really can't flatter foreigners when they give gifts." Guo Gang said, "I suspect that it is just to buy a gift to trick children. They will leave after the festival. Only smart children can see it by playing with children in 'Emperor's New Clothes'."Feedback from Wu You, the seller,Every time he receives a product return application, he will lose$7,It's terrible to think about it. The key is that the return rate of Wu You's products is very high every year after the festival,At least hundreds of items should be destroyed."I have now turned off the practice of 'repackaging and resale' for all categories. Compared with account security, these products should be discarded."Wu You has received it twice this year"Used Item Sold as New"Warning, although the loss of destroying the product is not small, we have to abandon the car marshal for account security.Liang Renjun, the seller, said that he met more exotic consumers."In the return application, the buyer not only asked for a full refund, but also because there was no offline return point near him and the express station was far away,He even asked me to reimburse him for the taxi fare. "Liang Renjun said that he could not laugh or cry at this request. He really did not understand and could not accept it. However, in order not to be "attacked" by bad comments, he had to bear it by pinching his nose.Not only Christmas, but Halloween also failed to escape the "return tide after the holiday".A clothing seller said that, just after Halloween, he woke up the next morning and received 30 return orders, mostly from October 25-30."It's not kind of these foreigners to return their clothes the next day after they buy them for Halloween." The seller said that the return rate of clothing products after Halloween was as high as 15% - 20%.However, some sellers said that the return rate soared after the festival,Most of them are "not very pleasant" products.The seller Lin Yi said that the sales of his products soared around Christmas. There was no large-scale return after the festival."I sell a 3C product with guaranteed quality. After several years, the return rate is still below the industry average."Lin Yi believes that products with strong universality are really suitable for holiday gifts. andThe quality is guaranteed. The design is pleasant. It is better to be light and compact,Generally, large-scale returns will not be encountered.For returns after the festival,A person in the industry made a summary analysis and believed that the following products are the concentrated areas for holiday returns:● Heavy sample toysMany adults do not spend too much time in choosing Christmas presents for children. So that many children often receive similar, even the same gifts.The most typical is the "bumblebee".(The picture is "Bumblebee" on Amazon)Such products are often the "hardest hit areas" for returns after the holidays, and sellers should try to avoid them.● Clothing productsBecause of differences in personal aesthetics, clothing products are not suitable for holiday gifts.● Game softwareMost game software is a gift for children.The children will be happy to receive this gift. But parents are not necessarily. It is likely that the giver has just left, and parents will "confiscate" the gift and let it "return on the same way".● Household productsAny products linked to "housework" and "household" are not suitable for holiday gifts.Because these things belong to a "home", whether the other party has a family or not, and whether the gift giver has "meaning", the final outcome is probably not good.Therefore, the return rate of household products in the holiday market is often not low.⑸ The amount of returned goods will reach 66.7 billion yuan, and one third of online shoppers will return goodsIn fact, the local institutions in the United States have anticipated the phenomenon of large returns after the festival.As early as Christmas Eve, the National Retail Federation (NRF) analyzed that althoughE-commerce salesIt will exceed US $222 billion, up 13% year on year. However, the return rate will also increase after the festival, which is expected to reach 66.7 billion US dollars, up 15% year on year.The Wall Street Journal reported that 1/3 of online shoppers will return goods after the festival.On the American market, the return rate of goods purchased from November to December has increased year by year. In 2018, it was only 37 billion dollars; It has increased to 41.6 billion dollars in 2019; In 2020, more than 58 billion dollars of holiday products were returned.Not only is the return rate of holiday products high in the US market, but also in Europe.According to Dave Field, founder of European company Col-8 Logistics, even if some products are considered as popular holiday gifts, more than 40% will eventually be returned to the seller.Under the attack of Omicron, the return rate of some products in Britain has soared.Reuters news agency reported that under the influence of Omicron, the Christmas party in Britain was cancelled on a large scale, resulting in a sharp increase in the return rate of many fashion products. In the past three weeks, the return rate of British fashion brands and retailers has increased by 48%, most of which are formal clothes suitable for parties.Even without the impact of the epidemic, the return rate of holiday products in Britain in previous years was not low.According to Royal Mail data, on January 4, 2020, online shopping returns in the UK increased by 63% compared with the average daily returns in December.It is reported that British consumers will return unsatisfied products purchased before the New Year on the first working day of the New Year, which is also called "Takeback Monday".For cross-border e-commerce sellers, although returns are a "disaster", they still need to be prepared for holiday products. After all, this state will be "normal" for a long time. (Text/Blue Ocean Yiguan of cross-border e-commerce)
