Sunday, March 25, 2007

What's your refund policy?

You will not even exist as an eBay seller without customers. Everything you do needs to revolve around outstanding customer service. Offering a fair, generous refund policy shows potential buyers that you are an honest seller and will stand by your products. Customers may never even use the refund policy, but you are giving your customers options just in case they don’t like the item for whatever reason. You are empowering them. If you look at large retailers, they will allow returns on any item for just about any reason.

I see a lot of eBay sellers that have return policies like, “store credit only,” or “returns only allowed if item is grossly misrepresented.” I’ll say as a customer, I don’t buy from these sellers (on or off eBay). As a customer, I want options. I want to know that if clothing doesn’t fit, I can return it. Or if an item doesn’t match my home décor, I can return it. I don’t want to feel stuck with a purchase that can’t be returned. I don’t want to waste my money on a product that may not work for me once I have it in my hands.

My refund policy allows returns within 30 days, for any product, for any reason. I even offer a refund for my eBooks if the customer isn’t happy. Having a fair, generous refund policy will attract more customers to your store and you will make more sales. Even if a customer returns an item and you issue a refund, that customer will know that you are a seller with integrity and they will return to your store. You can always relist the item and sell it again once it is returned.

I sell about 300 items a month, and less than 1% of the items are ever returned. You know how it is, you intend to return an item but never get around to it, or it sits in your car for 2 months waiting to be taken to the post office, and you forget about it. Having a generous refund policy is a powerful marketing tool that any seller can use, and it is totally free.

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