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People who own/manage retail sales, are returns killing you too?

★★★ signal-strong   r/smallbusiness  ·  ↑ 83  ·  💬 42  ·  2025-11-17  ·  kw: buy box price  ·  open on reddit ↗
your rating:
Tool
eBay
Issue
eBay's forced free returns policy for auto parts category drives 3x return rate (tripled since pandemic), with customers returning used/damaged items without pre-purchase verification, eroding margins on a $1T industry-wide refund burden.
Cost
$1T industry-wide refunds annually; seller states inability to absorb costs without raising prices; 3 returns in 1.5 months reported.
Recommendation
Implement return shipping cost barrier (customer-paid return shipping reduces returns 80%); add pre-sale handling fee covering return losses; raise prices to offset return economics; exit platform and use alternative sales channels.
Date context
Post date 2025-11-17; pandemic-driven return spike referenced as ongoing since post-pandemic period.
extracted with
anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5 · 2026-05-08

Body

Since the pandemic retail returns have almost tripled for all retailers/business, now at almost $1T. The platform I sell on, eBay, has forced free returns for the auto parts category, which is what I do a lot of business in. This is what has been annoying me: 1. People don't seem to understand I do not have billions in capital like Walmart or Amazon to allow anyone to return anything for any reason. Even Amazon is cracking down on returns due to the increase cost/frequency of returns since the pandemic. 2. Rather than looking up or checking with me if an item will fit their vehicle, they just assume it will since I have to offer returns. 3 returns in 1.5 months simply due this this. Personal accountability has gone out the window. 3. I do get the option sometimes to deduct from their refund, especially if they sent it back used when it was sold as new, and anytime I do, they bitch and moan about how unfair I'm being. If I sold something and it did not end up working somehow, or arrive damaged, I'm not going to do that, but if you buy a brand new car part that you did not check to see if it would fit, and literally try to force it and then damage it, then that's on you. I've tried to explain to people I can't keep prices low and allow people to just return something all the time and the recuperation of funds has to come from somewhere, but they simply do not understand nor care. If all retail businesses doled out nearly $1T in refunds last year, where do you think that money is going to come from? YOU, in the form of higher prices.

Top comments (7)

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[score=71] ChaoticFrugal
If I have to pay the shipping to return something I am 80% less likely to return it. We offer free exchanges for unused product, but they have to pay to ship it back to us. This policy might be hurting sales for people who want to buy with out commitment, but I haven't had to deal with a return/exchange in over a year so I consider it a win.
[score=29] raj6126
ouch you in the top mis ordered industry. Ypu could possible charge a handling charge for returns. State it before the sale. Don’t make it a lot just cover the funds you are losing. Explain to the customer in the listing it’s very important to order the correct part. Everything is up front and you can still accept a return. Most customers may keep it instead of losing money on it themselves.
[score=10] mothproof8603
Our company was having the same issues with Amazon and we finally pulled all of our products off the platform which initially hurt overall sales. Eventually we found other sales outlets and didn't have to deal with all of the returns and our profits increased. It just wasn't worth the hassle, time spent and loss of profit from returns to continue working with Amazon.
[score=15] boostedjoose
Every time my returns start to spike, I put up the price. Someone else can deal with the bottom feeders.
[score=6] Good-Work2301
First raise your prices based upon the economic impact. What you lose in volume, you will gain in value. Two write a return policy that is air tight and one will still apply. Always here to help so feel free to ask
[score=5] SuperSaiyanBlue
E-commerce have always had higher return rates than retail stores… as high as 30%+ depending on the product category.