Re: Will you get suspended for too many returns?
While I agree that eBay is probably a little bit overboard with the way they handle "defects" - it is almost impossible for a buyer to ask a question without it counting as a defect - some of the return rates mentioned are extremely high.
Nearnu - a 40% - 50% return rate is unheard of. This cannot be simple buyer dishonesty, there is SOMETHING going wrong here and you need to figure out what it is. Now, if you sold 2 items, it IS possible that 1 would be returned and therefore your return rate is 50%, but if you are selling in volume and experiencing this, then there is a problem.
To the OP - According to a survey by Internet Retailer Magazine, the average rate of return for all online businesses is 3%. I am not aware of the breakdowns by category (different categories have different return rates) but yours seems high to me at more than twice the average. Your return rate is 6.66%
In order to maintain Top Rated Seller status, you must have a defect rate below 2%. To keep your account, your defect rate must be below 5%. If it rises above 5%, eBay gives you a certain amount of time to fix it, but doing so is difficult. To get your current return rate of 6.66% down to 5%, you need to have a total of 120 sales, meaning you must sell 30 more items with ZERO returns. Ideally, you should be looking to lower it even further than the 5% threshold.
My suggestion would be to sell some things that are not prone to shipping damage or returns. Something like HDMI cables, which you can test before you send them. I am just using that as an example, but whatever you sell, the items should be cheap, and in perfect condition. You can still make a profit on your sales, but profit is not the goal here. If you lost $1 on each sale, at least you will have saved your account and it will have cost you $30. But TRY for a profit.
Going forward, you need to figure out what is causing the high rate of returns and fix the problem. I suspect there is more going on here than simple buyer dishonesty. Return rates are simply not normally that high. By any chance are you selling store returns, or shelf-pulls? If so, you should start examining them more closely and consider selling them as used. I have no idea what you are selling, of course, that was just a thought that popped into my head.
The other possible explanation is that maybe this rate of returns is normal for your category, but no matter how you look at it a 6.66% return rate is going to be a problem. If you had the 8 returns you mentioned at 100 sales, then your return rate would be 8% and I don't think you can afford for that to happen if you want to keep the account.
Last edited by jeffweico; 01-04-2015 at 02:52 PM.
|