Handling them without losing money or customers.
PUBLISH A POLICY
The period, the condition items must be in, who pays return delivery, and how long refunds take.
Most disputes come from an expectation nobody set.
WHO PAYS RETURN DELIVERY
Decide and state it. If the item was wrong or faulty, you should. If the customer changed their mind, that is a choice you make.
Return delivery in Nigeria is a real cost. Be clear about it in advance.
THE PRACTICAL APPROACH
For low-value items, the cost of collecting a return frequently exceeds the value. Refunding without requiring the return is sometimes the cheaper decision.
Work out your threshold.
RESTOCKING
Only restock genuinely resalable items. Marking damaged goods back into stock produces another complaint.
RECORDING
Note the reason. Patterns in returns tell you something about a product, its description or its packaging.
If one product is returned repeatedly, the description is probably wrong.
REFUND PROMPTLY
A slow refund produces a dispute, which costs more.
