Dropshipping Returns How to Handle Returns and Refunds

[@Oberlo]

Hey all! Jessica here. When handling returns, customer experience is SO important. Have you had any really good (or really bad!) return experiences at other stores? What did you learn from them?

[@realreview7932]

what if it is more then 14 days after the product was delivered and the customer wants to return

[@mehmetiirfan]

Jessica good video, but what if customer wants to return item, in which address they have to sent product if product is dropshiped from China

[@alaskanmalamute101]

how about offering your customer a personal discount code for next time they shop if they had a problem with an order for the double wait in delivery time. Hopefully making them happy and getting them back to your store :) ..wait you say this at the end of the video lol thought of that halfway through ^^

[@vickywatson2779]

Thank you for this video, returns/complaints etc was one of the things that I had been unsure of , which in turn had me hesitating moving my shop forward, you have made it so simple. I love these explanatory vids so much

[@zaeemc4901]

how about if the product needs to go back to the supplier

[@yeila2388]

Jessica .thank you so much. I was so anxious today thinking about this particular subject. God bless u

[@rsandhu02]

It’s weird, I haven’t had a return yet but for some reason having to deal with it also make me really nervous

[@david_fitzmaurice]

What about dropshipping clothes that don't fit them?

[@LeoonYT]

can i say "i dont do refunds" too?

[@aakash.pradhan]

WOW. Great video. Really informative and it helped me take some load off my head. Thanks.

[@Oberlo]

You're so welcome! Glad you enjoyed this video. 🙂 -Kitana

[@nickstone3198]

Great Video. though I think A lot of drop shippers are wondering this. "when putting something from Oberlo on your site, how do you know the color of product if all they show is #'S? and they only use the same photo for all the colors. The reason im stating this here is because this is a huge deal with returns, as the customer may get the wrong color. please help!

[@paoloangelino24]

Keep on coming with these informative videos! Im super close to starting my own store. :)

[@wentzel812]

I just asked this question on another video yesterday! 🤩 Thank you!

[@guldleo21]

Is it 14 days from ordering or 14 days starting when the buyer gets the product?

[@hiberniastore2627]

Great video with valuable content. I have bookmarked this video on my Computer to review regularly....Thanks Jessica.

[@chubbicherri4719]

Good day, thank you for making returns and refunds friendly as I am still in the precess of creating my store and this topic is one of my biggest fears. My QUESTION is: as you said if a damaged item is cheap i can simply ship another one for the client and ask them to keep the damaged item, but what if the item is expensive, how can i handle the expensive overseas shipping of a damaged item to my home?

[@Oberlo]

Hey there! Awesome question. If the product arrives to the customer damaged you can open a dispute on AliExpress. The supplier should either refund you the money or resend the product. You can then refund the customer or have them wait for the new item. If the product is damaged have them send in photos of it. Since it's damaged you won't need to have them ship it to you since you can't use it either. 😀 -Kitana

[@justwowtv4998]

But we want to know other stuff like do customers send products to manufacturer in China or to you and then you send to China the product to the supplier?

[@warrenkensington6091]

Hi! I have question about refund policy. If I wanna my customer return a product back to aliexpress supplier for refund or exchanging what adress I should write to my store? (Hope you got me :) )

[@christinemoore8470]

Thanks a Ton!!!!!!! This was very helpful!!!!

[@PatriciaHenry]

Hi! Jessica, great video. But what Shopify app do you recommend to handle return authorizations numbers so you and your customers can track a returned item?

[@felixf9791]

Very instructive vidéo 👍🏻 thanks a lot 😉

[@ravenclaweurope3900]

Will start my shop next week and this is VERY VERY VERY useful video. Love It. Thank you!

[@Oberlo]

Woohoo! That's great to hear. We're here if you need us, don't hesitate to reach out. -Jessica

[@-strahinja-3897]

But how customers can contact us? Through Email hosting service like Gsuite?

[@fionazane973]

Are there any examples of product niches that have low to almost zero return risks? A beginner here. And want to minimize time costs

[@op.oliver8452]

So when the product has arrived at the custome then they have 14 days to a refund?

[@Muffin123439]

Do customers have to pay shipping fees when they are shipping back the product?

[@Oberlo]

Hi there, awesome question! 👋 The details about customers shipping products back will be your choice to make. 💡 If you want to pay for the shipping costs, you can do that (best to do that after you receive the product and not before). You can also decide for the customer to pay the shipping costs. There are businesses that do both, it just depends on what works for them. 💪 In the start I suggest asking customers to pay for the shipping costs, once you are more established this is something you can offer that will help you keep customers (even if they weren't satisfied with their order). Let me know if you have any questions about this. 🙂 -Kitana

[@CF-Gaming01]

Hi, please can you confirm how the customer returns the item. Do items get delivered with a returns slip prepaid or do customers have to pay to return the item?

[@cybernaut777]

Great guide there. By the way, who will absorb the return shipping charges? sometimes the cost of shipping is more than the product. How should we handle this scenario?

[@genowynn9273]

Very useful info! Thanks Jessica.

[@Blue_Angel.555]

It is just so easy to learn from you 😘

[@dailym9508]

What if the the product never arrive? how do we ask for evidence, and what if the product actually arrive and they were lying. Thank you

[@jamesbullo]

Super, thank you!

[@TheDerpyCornDog]

So if you are sent 50 returns of a product to your address or PO box, what do you with products?

[@Jayboy2791]

For returns, what is a good email to use instead of your personal one? Who or what should I use as a support email address?

[@loloygarcia9931]

If the owner of the shopify is based outside US, is it a downside if the customers saw the address/where to return is not in US?

[@kilyan3007]

Very good video thank you!!

[@leeentertainmentchannel247]

Thank u pretty lady. U r a great teacher 👩‍🏫

[@KingChozen]

Is this also for orders that are imported from Aliexpress through Oberlo?

[@Oberlo]

Hey! Great question. Oberlo only imports products from AliExpress so this is for every order. Oberlo no longer has its own suppliers and we only work with AliExpress at this time. I hope that clears it up but if you have more questions I will be happy to assist you. 😀 -Kitana

[@walrusmagic1700]

When dropshipping an item may take up to 25 days to arrive, what are we supposed to do then? Since 14 days will have already passed before the customer finds out that the item is defective.

[@Oberlo]

Hi there! May I ask you to clarify that a little bit? Are you operating under the assumption that the product may arrive defective? Lead times are longer than some may appreciate with products coming from overseas -- it's part of the process. And a way to mitigate customer complaints is to be as transparent about that as possible at the onset.

[@walrusmagic1700]

@@Oberlo Yes, assuming the product is defective and a customer requests a refund, what do we do since 14 days have already past because of the long shipping times from China. (thanks for the quick response!)

[@RST9413]

@@walrusmagic1700 they don t know. Only thing they know is to take fakin money for every fkinthing

[@rociorodriguez8740]

Hey! Thank you for this video. I'm curious about how to deal with chargeback or inquiries and how can sellers be protected from fraudulent buyers.

[@ashhammond351]

Am I right in saying that the 14 days start from the day customer physically receiving the item ? would it be the from the delivery date on the tracking information? my shipping policy on shopify auto populates 30 days return policy

[@iabbaskhan]

how can my customer send me the refund product.

[@TheDalifeblives]

Is there is a type of customer return form or automated process available? Mayne through a app?

[@Oberlo]

Thanks for the question Brandon. No, your customer would be requesting the refund from you through whatever contact you have available. It could be an email, a chat service, or contact form built into your Shopify store front! -Jessica

[@MrEll999]

what about, if i am drop shipping but located in the UK, but drop shipping inside of the us with a USA supplier, then if a customer wants a refund, i dont have a USA address, then they will have to ship it internationally to the UK which will be expensive, how would you handle this issue, this is a good topic thanks

[@Oberlo]

Great question! You will just need to decide if you want to have your customers pay the shipping, you pay the shipping or you don't offer returns at all. You can't help where you're based and where a customer is based, so you just have to find which option will work best for you. It might not be ideal but business is always changing and you have to sometimes make decisions that aren't ideal but needed. I hope that helps. -Kitana

[@willfrommass]

Your website is longer up 😑

[@op.oliver8452]

IF i allow returns 30 days after delivery. Will i not get any money back from oberlo then?

[@massrapidtube]

Has the process for doing this changed in Oberlo? Under "Managed Orders" in the Oberlo app, I can't find the "3 dot buttons" to start filing a refund with the Aliexpress supplier.

[@comfikussens6441]

Have you already found a solution?

[@saramazloum6172]

Hi I have a question. If you do refund on oberlo do you have to do it on Shopify also?and another question is who gets the refund from the supplier you or the customer?

[@Konradulations]

Hi, i was wondering why your website dayvreakinleggins .com is offline

[@phillipmaser132]

Can Oberlo supply products and provide the refund side as well.

[@Oberlo]

Hey Phillip. Oberlo is a tool that allows you to import and sell products from Aliexpress. For returns and refunds, you'll need to determine your own refund policy. Here's a guide to help you with it (bit.ly/2WNPJtB)! -Jessica

[@PatriciaHenry]

@@Oberlo thanks for this link. I have a refund policy on my store. I still need a good app to attach to my store that the customer could fill out 1st to expedite returns. I only had 2 returns so far thankfully. My customers emailed me about wanting to return a ring set. I emailed them back but I never got a response back from them, nor did they send me back the item. They wanted a refund because they ordered the wrong size. I even sent them several other emails to see if they got my other emails letting them know they were welcome to a refund once I received the item. They never responded. 🙄🤔

[@iannogueira1848]

Thanks for the subtitles

[@iliasstahiri169]

Dear Jessica, I've watched thousand of videos about dropshiping, you are the best I ever see explaining about anything, specialy dealing with comments, I saw your answer regarding some comments here and its sooo professional, MY QUESTION : how can I find a good costumer support for my store who can react like you 😁? Is there a video fulfilling this subject ? Kind regards, Elias

[@Oberlo]

Hi Elias, thank you so much for your kind words! If you're looking for support to hire for your store, I would suggest looking on freelancing websites. You can meet the person and see if they meet your standard for support! -Jessica

[@amanmohammed7728]

we do provide customer service for drop shippers

[@michelecross6774]

Hi, I am based in Australia and wondering if the customer has to return the item to me personally and they were say for example in the USA, how is the returned shipping cost handled with the customer?

[@Oberlo]

Hi there, Michele! Excellent question. Two options; you can offer to pay for the return shipping by way of a partial refund or store credit, or you can let the customer assume the cost of return shipments. The reality is that returns are difficult to deal with and in general it makes more sense to simply issue a refund and let them keep the product. Your suppliers will only accept returns if the product is damaged or not as described, so your policies have to reflect your suppliers' policies. Or, you factor in this as a business cost and take the loss when/if returns are in order. Here is a guide to returns and refunds (bit.ly/2JZOjpc!). 🙂 -Jessica

[@brandflipping6353]

Hi Oberlo is discontinued. what to do next? is there any alternative ?

[@tijosamuelthomas1]

How about when the customer dint like the product and wants to send it back, if i give my address(Which is in other country) who should bear the shipping charges?? and how can my customer do that??

[@Oberlo]

Hey Tijo! You will need to accept the return to yourself. While you can request the customer to pay the return shipping, I suggest paying it yourself. Keeping your customers experience positive will go a long way in having them shop again! -Jessica

[@kurtthorsten4463]

hello Jessica it is a great video, thank you for sharing your knowledge about such an important topic. One question I had was when you said the return rate is normally between 6-8%, depending of the product of course where I see clothing much higher. But is this a big risk? I plan to start a dropshipping store, but I dont have that many funds, maybe a couple hundred dollars. I can afford to loose them, but I cant afford going into the reds because products will be returned to often. Is the margin big enough to compensate for those returns and do you know of any cases where people actually lost money, because they had to many returns. Thank you

[@andrefernandes2538]

Hi Jessica, thank u for this great video, it realy explains how to handle a return. Altough, I have a question, does this model works with Aliexpress supliers? Thanks in advance

[@Oberlo]

Hey there! Yes, it definitely does! 🙂 -Jasper

[@amrit0643]

Hey there , Jessica I've a question , like I'm from india . I've online shopify store . If customer want to return a product than which location I should provide to them because I'm not living in usa so where they can return products to me if customer wants refund ??

[@Oberlo]

HI there! Good question, here's what you need to know about returns and refunds, regardless of which country you live in (bit.ly/2m0UMIT). 🙂 -Jasper

[@lecourageuxame100]

What if I got the product from Aliexpress and not from Oberlo? What if I just dropped my product from aliexpress to Oberlo? Would I still be able to do the dispute thing at Oberlo? If not, what should I do and where should I go?

[@Oberlo]

Hi there! There are no longer any internal suppliers or dispute resolutions at Oberlo. All products are now sourced directly from AliExpress. 🙂 -Jasper

[@mirlenehenry4673]

Thank you so much pretty lady😍

[@paytonrush8119]

Does it cancel the order if you refund part of the order?

[@Oberlo]

Hi there! No, it does not. You can issue partial refunds and still ship the products, the two payments (AliExpress and your Shopify store) are unrelated. 🙂 -Jasper

[@cryptoranty1286]

The supplier is contacted by Oberlo for the refund. However, the customer must send the product to you. But won't the supplier be asking for the product as well? As because they are giving the refund.

[@cryptoranty1286]

I love that Oberlo noticed me, but I would also love an answer to this. :')

[@frankpitale]

the email i receive for this video was saying "How much does it cost to start dropshipping in 2019? We crunched the numbers to find out. Watch this video for a realistic, line-by-line dropshipping budget. " but this video talk about refunds....

[@Oberlo]

Sorry about that Riccardo! Here's our video on startup costs for a dropshipping store (bit.ly/2teJSQl). 🙂 -Jessica

[@ShahGhafoori]

Hey Jessica, Great video. Just wondering how the customers should handing returns. Let's say I am in US and customers returns a product from UK. Does he have access to epacket? Who pays for return shipping fee? Does the drop-shipper handle return label the way Amazon does? Thank you for great videos and tips

[@meramjanssen7186]

What if you live in Thailand and are dropshipping via Aliexpress to the USA? Were can the customer send it to? I am just starting out so forgive me if this question isalready obvious for everyone else

[@Oberlo]

Hi there! Your supplier will ship directly to your customer. There's no need to send the products to a central location first, they go straight to the people who purchase from your site. 🙂 -Jasper

[@chrisdivine6601]

I'm curious, in the "How to Deal With Long Shipping Times when Dropshipping," you recommend refunding if it's a low cost item and here your recommend not to. I'm trying to figure out what path to take. Do you not offer refunds or do you know of other dropshippers who don't and are customers are fine with not getting a refund?

[@Oberlo]

Hi Christine! Sorry about the confusion. I always suggest refunding your customer because their experience should be your top priority. Whether or not you ask them to actually ship the product back is up to you. Many dropshippers simply tell the customer to keep the product (or throw it out if it's broken) and then still ship them a new one. -Jessica

[@chrisdivine6601]

@@Oberlo Thank you! I really appreciate you responding.

[@pourdelajoker2132]

I don't live in the US, and shipping from the US to my country costs around 30-50 dollars. How can I solve this problem?

[@Syedturkishofficial]

*Your comment got some serious errors... you said you don't live in the US...but you wanna ship from US to your country wtf dude😕

[@Oberlo]

Great question Alperen! In that case, for returns, I would suggest letting the customer keep the product. At the end of the day, you want to provide an amazing experience from start to finish so they are a returning customer. If shipping it to you is a hassle, it's best to let them keep it. -Jessica

[@Oberlo]

Hey Syed, we have not noticed the majority of customers do not notice or care about the package itself. Also, I commend your patience waiting for the lunar new year holiday to be over. You're almost there! -Jessica

[@asdasd-ge9xe]

@@Syedturkishofficial Yes, if the customer (from the US) wants to return it they need to ship it internationally.

[@disruptivetimes8738]

If i did get the current stats right, the overall return rate of fashion products are somewhat around 30% to 40% and the general return rate of any product is like 15%, way more than what was stated in this video. Now, if you have a fashion store as a shopify dropshipper, with a return rate of 30% you are going down pretty fast. I havent seen any reports from actual shops and how they deal with that. Can you clarify that please, since it looks like a fashion shop as a dropshipping business is a realy bad idea.

[@Oberlo]

Hi there, thanks for the question! Could you please link your sources for these return rate percentages? That will help give me some context and look into an answer for you! Thank you. -Jessica

[@YaNeK92]

If your returns are truly that high, you are definitely selling a low quality product with most likely a very long shipping time. Make sure what you sell is on point, the description is accurate and overall transparent.

[@lostintaipei]

One thing that I wish Shopify/Oberlo/Aliexpress would get right is a common tracking system for packages. These days, largely thanks to Amazon, customers expect to be able to track their package and know exactly where it is and how long it will take before it reaches them at any time. Too many of the companies on Aliexpress don't do this. I've had packages disappear into thin air for weeks at a time and then resurface on the day they are actually delivered. In the meantime both me and the customer are freaking out not knowing where it is. This is especially troubling if the customer has paid for expedited shipping and it's late. Sometimes they want a refund for this. The sellers on Aliexpress are often unhelpful in this regard. So please Jessica, use your considerable charm and influence to push Oberlo to do this. There's no reason why in 2019 a customer shouldn't know at any time where their package is no matter where they live.

[@leoigorevich8364]

Here here!

[@anubhavwadhwaindia]

Hi Jessica, I recently have decided to start Dropshipping from india, and I had recently registered with Stripe (payment provider), it has recently been launched in India, I got in touch with the support team regarding some Tax issue but they reverted me back saying "we don't support drop-shopping business right now as merchants (you) have no control over the actual shipping process or the inventory which can result to chargeback risks and that's what we are trying to prevent because it will have a big impact to our customer like you." Is Stripe really that important as a payment provider? or you have any other payment providers in mind, which can work as an alternative to this. Please help me out.

[@samuelbeckley4813]

Interesting...

[@MrTibbs]

Solid...

[@KiranSharma64414]

honestly, there are some customers are very critical

[@edwinpena7974]

Hi Jessica, this was a great tutorial, it was very helpdul to me. I am just starting my business, do you think you could be my mentor and help me with some consultations sometimes ?

[@Oberlo]

Hey there! While Jessica would love to mentor everyone in the community, she needs time to research new products, videos, and content for us all. The best way to find a mentor is to find any Facebook dropshipping groups and make a post in there asking if anyone could help you or mentor you. Good luck! -Kitana

[@mohammedmahin7267]

i came here with so many problems but end up falling in love with you

[@Blue_Angel.555]

Mohammed Mahin stand in line Mohammed 🤣🤣🤣

[@RST9413]

This is just stupid. Why this app don t take the customer adress and fix theyr problems. A dropshipper sell someone else products. What a fkin crap.

[@asmrofthings4781]

damn shes so cute :)

[@crazyom3d469]

;)

[@amyshaw444]

Why aren't we talking about her eyes??

[@elementsessence7368]

because we have grown past middle school, and are now mature...?

[@amyshaw444]

@@elementsessence7368 Lol chill I just noticed she has pretty eyes and wanted to make a comment about it.