Wednesday 2 November 2016

Amazon’s new matrix upgrade forcing sellers to accept all return requests?

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Marketplace policy change is a continuous process. New features, functions, rates and policies are regularly being introduced. Do online marketplaces consider how their policies affect sellers before implementing them? Hopefully this time Amazon will.
Amazon has updated its seller matrix, Techtail India’s Samir Ahluwalia informs IOS. The online seller claims the new upgrade will negatively impact many sellers who haven’t enrolled in the runaway program or those who self-ship orders to consumers.
What does the matrix upgrade include?
Samir states, “There are 2 performance parameters added by Amazon. They are:
  1. Return Dissatisfaction Rate
  2. Valid tracking rate”
Out of these two, the return dissatisfaction rate is still in the beta stage. As a result, no breach matrix is in place as yet. But once you understand what it implies you will see how it affects the seller.

Amazon’s Return Dissatisfaction Rate

The percentage of all the valid return requests that were not answered in 48 hours, have received negative customer feedback or were incorrectly rejected, reflect the return dissatisfaction rate. Amazon claims this matrix measures customer satisfaction with how their returns are processed.
The return dissatisfaction rate consists of these three individual components:
– Invalid rejection rate
– Negative return feedback rate
– Late response rate
Out of these three, the negative return feedback rate refers to the percentage of valid return requests (i.e. return requests within Amazon Policy) where buyers indicate their issues have not been resolved.
Every return requested by the buyer is checked to see if it was resolved. Should the buyer indicate his request was not resolved then the return request received will have negative return feedback. When negative feedback is received against return requests, they most likely result into claims.

Why is all this bad for online sellers?

Samir says, “The above situation us dangerous because naturally, all buyers whose return requests are rejected will state it was rejected for invalid reasons. This will prompt negative feedback. In turn, this forces the seller to accept return requests irrespective of other reasons.”
There is no way to prevent marketplaces from changing their policies time and again. Changes are bound to happen. However, you can anticipate marketplace policies to ultimately counter each other.
Not so long ago, Amazon changed its sponsored ads payment process after sellers informed the etailer how bad the original method was. But will the etailer listen to its sellers this time?

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