Product returns: The workflow - steps involved

Product returns are one of the main pain points to all e-commerce sites. If you would  to know why the product returns happends,  do read our previous posts.

Customer returns: Why it happens and lean ways to reduce them - Part-1 

Customer returns: Why it happens and lean ways to reduce them - Part-2

In this post we will discuss the basic workflow.

Steps involved in the product returns

• Customer raise the request by calling your customer care  or through your website
• Either customer ship the product to your warehouse location or your representative goes to customer address and pickups the item
• The product is received at the warehouse. Route the product to temporary buffer area and mark the product status as cannot be shipped.
• Assess the quality of the item. This step is done manually.
• If the product is in good condition, then mark it as Good condition/ready to ship, by calling inventory service. Place the item in some shelf using inventory service.
• If the vendor takes back the product (depending on the terms and conditions) return the product to the vendor..
• If the item is damaged, either liquidate it or sell to used items purchase vendor.
• In short, regarding what to do with the product there are multiple options like resell, return to vendor, sell as used items, or liquidate. Please do read our elaborated  post on Product returns: What you can do with returned items
• Compensate the customer either by giving money, or store credit, or shipping the new product. Please do read our post on store credit: Product returns: Store credit concept - from merchants point of view