At Amazon, we’re committed to helping customers find the right product for their needs. We’re continuing to innovate to launch features such as personalized size recommendations, review highlights, and, most recently, Rufus, our generative AI-powered expert shopping assistant, to help customers make more informed shopping decisions. Most of the time, customers love their purchases, but just like any retailer, occasionally customers want to return something that they purchased from us. If a customer decides to return an item, we make returns convenient and easy–working backwards from customer and selling partner needs to streamline the returns process.
We’re also continuously innovating to provide selling partners with tools that can help them better understand customer motivations and behaviors post-purchase. At Accelerate, we launched Customer Return Analytics and Insights, which uses Generative AI to gather and analyze relevant customer feedback—including reviews, questions, and return reasons—to give sellers a clear picture of how to improve the customer experience.
We offer sellers who choose to use our Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service an array of options to handle their returned inventory efficiently. These options range from customer convenience boosters like Returnless Resolutions (also referred to as keep-it returns) to services that help extend the life of returned products like Grade and Resell and FBA Donations.
Here are a few of the key services available to selling partners:
Grade and Resell
For items that are returned to Amazon's return centers, we offer Grade and Resell, which is an optional program that helps extend the life of returned products by providing sellers with a resell channel on Amazon for returned inventory. Before an item can be sold through Grade and Resell, we conduct a comprehensive inspection to thoroughly test the condition of each item and provide a detailed description of its condition to make it easier for customers to make a more informed purchase decision. For electronic items, we will power on, test, and factory-reset as part of the evaluation. Based on the quality check, each item will be assigned one of four listing conditions: “Like New,” “Very Good,” “Good,” or “Acceptable.”
Grade and Resell was previously available to Retail brands, and not surprisingly, sellers using FBA asked for the same service given how it can streamline returns management. So, we’re excited to share that we expanded Grade and Resell to sellers in the U.S. We launched this gradually, capturing feedback throughout the roll-out process that improved the offering. We’re excited to now offer Grade and Resell to all sellers who use FBA in the U.S., providing independent sellers with a resell channel to recover value on returned inventory, which will also lead to greater selection of pre-owned and open-box products for customers.
Product Support
Both retail and FBA brands can opt in to provide customers with free product support on eligible items once an item is purchased, helping with product setup, product use, or troubleshooting issues. Depending on the product, brands can provide customers with manufacturer contact details, step-by-step troubleshooting instructions, help videos, or coordinate the replacement of missing or broken parts. In 2023, product support helped avoid the return of more than 11 million items in the U.S. and Europe, up 50% from 2022–ultimately improving the customer experience, benefiting brands, and reducing return shipments. Customers can access these options through the Your Orders page by clicking Get Product Support.
FBA Returnless Resolutions
We strive to make the customer experience as seamless as possible. One way we do that is through our Returnless Resolutions program. With this convenient option, sellers in our U.S. store can now enroll in FBA Returnless Resolutions, enabling them to grant refunds without requiring the customer to physically return the item. In particular, international sellers and sellers of low-cost items may find this a more cost-efficient option for handling returns.
FBA Donations
In cases where products cannot be resold due to various reasons but still have plenty of life left, we partner with the nonprofit organization Good360 to donate these items to families and individuals in need. Sellers using FBA can join our mission by participating in the FBA Donations program, enabling them to donate eligible products through Amazon's partnership with Good360.
At Amazon, we are committed to providing our selling partners with a range of options to handle their returned inventory efficiently and responsibly. Whether it's through the newly launched Grade and Resell, product support, Returnless Resolutions, FBA Donations, or one of our other options, we strive to offer solutions that prioritize convenience, extend the life of products, and support communities in need.
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