How To Deal With Returned Items In Drop Shipping

How To Deal With Returned Items In Drop Shipping

Drop shipping is for the most part, a great business model for the small reseller who gets to rely on a third party which has better resources for capital intensive functions like warehousing and time consuming functions like shipping. There is only one great disadvantage. How to deal with returned items in drop shipping? Since the only address that the customer has, is the retailer's, the products are usually sent back to the retailer.

Even if the product is sent back to the drop shipper, little can be done as the drop shipper is not responsible for customer engagement. Given these issues, it is best to have a very clear process as regards all returned items with the drop shipping company that you engage. A policy with regard to the accountability of tasks and costs associated with returned items.

As a first step, keep the responsibility of receiving all returned items with one person. It could be the drop shipper or you. Receiving a product yourself ensures that the customer is not required to interact with anybody else and also allows you an opportunity to inspect the quality of goods that have been returned.

Now, there are usually two reasons why a product is returned. Either, it was misrepresented, in which case, it should be the responsibility of the retailer or if it was damaged in transit, in which case, the responsibility lies with the drop shipper. There could of course be a third case where the customer changed his mind, in which case, again, it is best for the costs to be absorbed by the retailer.

While, on paper, it is easy to assign liability, in the real world, there is often confusion between why the customer returned what he did and who should be held responsible. So, it is best to define the policy in a way where it leaves no room for interpretation. For example, you could say that unless a product can be shown to be defective or damaged, the responsiblity lies with the retailer and not the drop shipper.

The third and last step is usually about providing a replacement (if asked for) in which case, the retailer will be required to issue the necessary instructions to the drop shipper. It is important for the retailer to have clear lines of communication with the drop shipper to ensure that these transactions are completed in the fastest time possible with minimum inconvenience to the customer. If it takes too long or if the product replacement is wrong, chances of a cancellation are high.

Howsoever, well defined the process may be, handling returned products in a drop shipping arrangement is always a complicated task. It is therefore important to ensure the best possible communication regarding product features (or drawbacks) to avoid such a situation. However, if such a situation were to arise, be sure to have some kind of system to fall back upon so that the issue can be resolved effectively to the customer's satisfaction.

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