Ok - there's a lot to digest in eBay's new changes. The one that hit ME in the face first is that they have once again extended the deadline for inplementing a RETURN policy on your listings. They are still saying you can say NO RETURNS - NO HOW - NO WAY but..they don't recommend it. So I have been contemplating MY return policy (I take returns if I screw up the description or misidentify something. I don't like taking returns for "buyers remorse" or "I got it Cheaper at Gary's ( local store's slogan)
And then I read, on http://www.churchofcustomer.com/ this factoid -
Zappos does over $1 billion in annual sales, one-third of which is returned.
Now figure this - $1,000,000,000 in sales - 1/3 or which is returned. and that would be ?
10% is $1,000,000 x .33 = $333,333,333 (according to my accounting dept. AND he's younger than my son. (Note to God - DEAR GOD? What did I do wrong?? Can I please be that smart that young next time? LOL)
But seriously if they can make that much money taking that many returns.....WE, the puny small ebay sellers, can find some way to work a return policy out that gives us good karma, don't cha think?
Think on it. (and if you figure one out, please comment. I'd like to hear some alternative ideas).
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2 comments:
I bet zappos jobs out their returns. They'd have to. So they're already buying their stuff on the cheap and if they can sell pallets of returns to jobbers they can maybe break even on their returns.
I can't break even taking returns, I'll tell you that much. I sell women's clothing. The wacky hard to find stuff. When I first started selling on ebay in 1999, I did take returns. You wouldn't believe what I got back. One really nice dress and matching jacket had been to Sunday brunch. There was dried egg yoke down the front. The tags were safety pinned back on.
Another dress smelled musty and another skirt smelled like it had been hanging in a greasy KFC for a month.
I could go on and on. But the point is, maybe (just maybe) if the fees for clothing were to go down to a manageable level I could sell more and I could have "jobbers" buy my returns. As it stands right now, no I can't.
Yep, I just started saying in my listings All items as is and no returns. I used to say "Will give a complete refund if item does not match my description" and I wrote that for YEARS! But suddenly people started contacting PayPal saying "Item did not match the description" and my terms stated that loud and clear and it seemed buyers were taking advantage and soon learned how to work the system.
I now say no returns because of that. If I was selling hundreds of items a month, I may reconsider but I only sell a few items a month so handing out half of the returns to buyers taking advantage can sure add up.
Thanks for the post because it sure is something all sellers need to work out.
Danna
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