Let’s say you are an Amazon Marketplace seller (Selling via sellercentral.amazon.com) and you made a shipping error on one of the orders you received. (You shipped the wrong product to the customer). How does the return process work?

First, the buyer logs into their Amazon account and creates a return request. Once they do that, Amazon sends you (the merchant) an email notification with the following information.

Return Requested for order 111-1966684-9901004

Return reason: Different from what was ordered

Buyer comments: Safe DVD. It says that it was to be delivered to John Smith in California.

Once you get this email, you should login into your Amazon seller central account. And go to Orders – Manage Returns section.

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There you will see the order with the return request. And Amazon gives your four options.

Screen Shot 2013-02-22 at 2.27.18 PMIf you click on “Authorize Request”, then the buyer is sent a non-prepaid Return Merchandise Label that includes your return address. This is not a great option from the customer service point of view because you are making the customer pay for the return shipment even though it was your fault that resulted in this situation.

The better option is to click on “Contact Buyer”. Through this screen, you can send a note the customer. And also attach a return label which the customer can print out and attach to the package.

An even better option is to mail the return label and a return envelope to the customer. You have to send them the correct product anyway, so generate a return label using your shipping software (you can also do this by logging into USPS.com (of Fedex.com / UPS.com)) and include that return label in the package that you mail to the user.

If you  are an Amazon seller central merchant, then try out Ordoro’s shipping and inventory management features for Amazon marketplace to streamline your entire backoffice order fulfillment workflow.