Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Handling Returns in the Store from Online Sales

Suppose that you have store policies already in place, but it's now time to update your return or exchange policy. Given today's high rate of fraudulent activity, you're probably already wary (if not suspicious) of customers who hightail it back to your store with merchandise in hand.

Now you have to add the return of online orders to the mix. After your online store is up and running, someone will certainly make a purchase on your Web site, and the purchase might be the wrong size or be damaged or be in a style that the customer doesn't like.

Before you can decide how to handle the return, you have to ask yourself how you want to respond to it. If your goal is to work with your customers and make them happy, you want to develop a customer-friendly policy.

On the other hand, you may be most interested in protecting your bottom line. In that case, you can approach the online return policy in a way that's most convenient for you.

Here are some decisions that you need to make about return policies:

• Customer-friendly policy: If you're taking this route, your policy might stipulate that you
  • Pay for return shipping (or reimburse the customer for it) if a purchase is sent back by mail because the item is damaged or doesn't fit, for example.
  • Accept the return with no questions asked
  • Give a complete refund or exchange the item
  • Request (but not demand) a copy of the original receipt
• Bottom-line policy: When cutting corners is your biggest ...