Amazon merchants need to have local return addresses

Online merchants who sell their products via Amazon, are obliged to have a local return address in every country they are selling or they should pay for the return costs if the package needs to be returned to somewhere else. These are the new rules for Fulfilment by Amazon.

With Fulfilment by Amazon, online retailers store their products in Amazon’s fulfilment centers, while Amazon picks, packs and delivers them to the customers. Starting March 2, new rules will be active, stating merchants need to have a local return address in every country they are selling, otherwise they need to pay the return costs themselves.

Local return address
The rules state: “You will either provide customers with a local return address within the applicable elected country (e.g., if you list an offer on Amazon.com, the local return address must be within the United States) or pay the return shipping costs to have the item returned to an international location. This may be in the form of a prepaid returns label or a reimbursement of return shipping costs incurred by the buyer.”

In order to improve the local services and because Amazon doesn’t want consumers having to bear with high return costs, online retailers are now obliged to implement a return process for every country they are active.

“This will improve cross-border sales”
According to Jeroen Leenders, co-owner of e-business services company Salesupply, this is a good sign. “Amazon thinks in the interest of local consumers. That’s a development that will improve cross-border sales even more. This will also separate the chaff from the wheat and that’s something we applaud.”