Offering free shipping with 14 day returns

solefoodbk · #1 11-30-2014

For the past 4-5 months I've been offering free shipping and a 14 day return policy on ALL my listings. The main reason I offer returns is I saw someone on the forums state "you midaswell offer returns, if they open a case your going to have to refund them anyways". This makes 100% sense to me. PLUS the nice bump in sales from the illusion of a return policy, even though ebay basically refunds them regardless usually. Not to mention we also have paypal and chargebacks from credit cards to deal with.

What I noticed is since I offer free shipping along with my own 14 day return policy, it almost seems like buyers don't want to return the item simply because it becomes a extra cost to them now? Or I'm just that good at listing accurately haha. Anyone else notice any similarities? Simply just a observation I've found interesting that I thought I should share...

Side note: I don't usually sell past $100 items. Its pretty much the quantity of sales with me more than the amount.

jeffweico · #2 12-01-2014

I always offer a 30 day return policy. If the item is damaged or misdescribed, I will pay the return shipping. If the buyer decided they don't want it, or ordered the wrong item by mistake, they THEY are responsible for paying the return shipping. Either way, I always state any item can be returned for ANY reason, no questions asked. And my refund rate is well under 1%.

I think it depends on WHAT you sell. Some items, like cell phones and certain electronics, just seem to attract scamming buyers. But books are my biggest niche and scammers aren't really a problem for me.

I sell other things, but I stay away from anything that is a "hot" brand name and anything that is highly counterfeited and most electronics. None of my sales are for super popular items.