Amazon Introduces a Return Fee for High-Return Products

What is Amazon’s Current Return Policy?

Amazon’s return policy is among the most customer-friendly in online shopping. You can return most items within 30 days if they are unused and in new condition. For items Amazon ships directly, return shipping is free, making returns easy and cost-free. The process is simple and can be done online with a prepaid label you print at home.

For items sold by third-party sellers but shipped by Amazon through the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program, the return policy is similar. However, if an item is both sold and shipped by a third-party seller, you might have to pay a return shipping fee between $3 and $6.

Amazon Introduces New Return Fee

Beginning January 1, 2025, Amazon will implement a fee targeting sellers with products that experience frequent returns. Customers will continue to have the option to return items within a 30-day window, but sellers facing a high volume of returns will incur a return fee.

››› Only sellers with high return rates will need to pay this fee. If you ship fewer than 25 items a month, you won’t have to pay it.

What concerns customers, they won’t see a change and will still have easy returns, unlike sellers, who should now monitor their return rates to avoid fees.

This fee is designed to help Amazon manage the substantial logistical expenses associated with processing and shipping returns. It also addresses the challenge of reverse logistics, which involves the handling of returned merchandise. Returns impose significant financial and environmental burdens on both Amazon and its sellers, due to the waste from returned and non-resellable items. With this upcoming change, Amazon aims to decrease return rates and motivate sellers to improve product descriptions, and ultimately reduce the return of items.

How Does This Affect Amazon Customers?

Great news for customers: the upcoming changes won’t directly impact them. The return fee will apply to sellers, not buyers. Whether you purchase an item shipped by Amazon or fulfilled by a third-party seller, your return process will remain just as straightforward as before.

Items sold directly by Amazon or through the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program are not affected by this new fee, as Amazon will continue to cover return costs for items shipped from their warehouses. Thus, if you buy directly from Amazon, the return process remains unchanged.

This fee is specifically for third-party sellers who manage their own shipping and have high return rates. Amazon’s goal is to decrease returns by encouraging sellers to improve product quality and enhance how they present their products online.

How Can Sellers Manage New Return Fees?

To help sellers better understand their return metrics and reduce the risk of incurring return processing fees, Amazon has upgraded the Return Insights dashboard on the FBA Returns page.

The enhanced Return Insights dashboard now offers the following insights:

The number of returned units and the percentage of returns utilized to calculate potential fees.
Minimum return rate thresholds that, when surpassed, activate fees.
The count of returned units above the threshold, which incur fees.

Sellers can access the Return Insights dashboard by visiting the FBA Return Page.

How Does the New Amazon Return Fee Work?

The updated returns processing fee examines product returns over a three-month timeframe, starting in the month the product was shipped and ending two months later. For example, items shipped in June will have their returns tracked through June, July, and August.

Fees are charged only if the total returns for items shipped in a given month exceed the threshold for that product’s fee category, details of which are now available on the Returns processing fee page. If the returns surpass the threshold, fees will apply to each unit returned beyond this limit.