Returnless Refund for Amazon orders under £20/€25

Amazon want overseas sellers to either offer a UK return address or offer returnless refund for all items and orders under £20. This is kicking in from the 5th of October for anyone that fulfils customer orders sold on Amazon UK from outside the UK. Importantly the £20 includes any shipping charges – it applies to either item or order value. If you are based in the UK and have a local UK return address then it’s business as usual and nothing to worry about as far as the UK goes.

“We request that you offer either Returnless Refund or provide a Domestic return option for items and orders under £20 (including VAT and shipping charges) as part of our Selling on Amazon Returns policy. In such instances, we will generate a prepaid return label (see Amazon Prepaid Return Label), which the customer can use to return the items. To set your UK default return address, access the Seller Account Information page, go to Settings – Account Info – Shipping and Returns Information section, click Return Address, and then fill it out with the appropriate address.”
– Amazon

What happens if you don’t have a local return address?

If you do not provide Amazon with a default return address in the UK for items and orders under £20, Amazon will automatically issue the customer a Returnless Refund on your behalf where return requests fall within the scope of the Amazon Return policy, without requiring the customer to return the item to you.

Impact when selling in Europe

This isn’t a change that just applies to the UK, we’ve already seen a similar edict for Amazon Germany, France, Italy and Spain with the only difference being it applies to orders under €25 rather than £25 so it’s rolling out across the EU. This is significant as it will apply to you if you sell on any overseas Amazon sites and sell low value goods – Time to either use FBA and let Amazon do the heavy lifting or to engage a partner who can offer local in-country return or forwarding addresses in the territories you sell.

Amazon say that this change will help to simplify and standardise the returns process for customers and sellers for low-cost items, where international labels are generally more expensive than the cost of the item. If you do not have a UK default return address, Amazon suggest that an International Returns provider on the Solution Provider Network may be able to help.