Amazon Has a New Policy That Could Ruin Small Businesses

One of the hardest things about online shopping is not knowing if things will fit right or work the way we want it to. This is one reason why people will return the item they bought.

The fact that Amazon has a new policy making it easier for customers to return certain merchandise could be a big blow to some merchants who sell on the platform.

Amazon announced that beginning October 2nd, merchants who sell from their home, garage or warehouse, and not an Amazon facility, will have their items eligible for “automatically authorized” for returns.

Amazon buyers will no longer have to work with the sellers to return their merchandise but will be able to print out a prepaid return shipping label in the Online Return Center.

The company also announced that it is introduced a policy called “returnless refunds” which means if an item is too heavy to ship back or hard to resell, Amazon will offer a refund without taking the item back.

One third-party seller said the policies “will totally crush small businesses that fulfill their own orders.”

Another merchant argued, “In other words, customers get things from us for free! Is this a joke?” Another said, “Amazon is going to assume that a buyer would NEVER lie about the reason for the return so they don’t have to pay for it.”
Amazon said in a statement that sellers can “receive exemptions to have specific inventory excluded.” The company also said that the returnless service is optional.

“These new features allow sellers to reduce time and costs associated with returns while providing customers with an easy and efficient return experience,” Amazon wrote in an e-mail.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and have not been compensated for this article.