Returns management for online retailers

Returns management carries a customer's request through to a recorded outcome while tracking the item, payment and customer's rights. For an online retailer, open one case record linked to the affected order lines.

Record what the customer reports, each item's status and who owns the next action. Keep the customer, item and payment records connected until the remedy and final outcome are recorded.

Start with the reason for the request

Ask what happened before applying a policy. A customer who chose the wrong size, received a different item or reports a fault may all say “return”, but the decisions differ.

Record whether the customer reports a product problem or another reason, such as a change of mind. Keep the store's published policy, any warranty information the customer supplies and the request facts as separate inputs to the case record.

Record the customer's account of what happened in their own words and ask for the information needed to assess it. Do not treat a menu choice as a final diagnosis.

Name a triage owner to check the request and route it, and an assessment owner to review the facts and recommend a remedy. If responsibility moves between people, record the hand-off and who owns the next action.

Follow the case and the item

Keep two connected tracks. The customer track records the request, assessment, proposed remedy and confirmation. The item track records return instructions, parcel movement, receipt, inspection and stock decision. A carrier delivery scan does not establish which items arrived or their condition.

Link both tracks to the original order line. Check the variant, quantity, payment reference and earlier adjustments before approving a refund or exchange. If a parcel contains several items, record a finding and outcome for each one.

Use statuses that name events: request received, parcel received, assessment complete and refund submitted. Give cases waiting for information or a specialist decision an owner and a review date; the assessment owner should retain responsibility until the decision is recorded or formally handed over.

Decide the remedy on the facts

Assess the facts recorded for the product and the customer's reported problem under the consumer guarantees in the Australian Consumer Law. For a faulty product, a consumer may have a right to repair, replacement or refund. Record the remedy decision, who authorised it and any conditions or timeframes that apply.

For a change-of-mind request, retailers are not required to offer a refund simply because the customer changed their mind. If the store offers a change-of-mind returns policy, record the terms offered and follow them as written.

Before promising an exchange, check the requested item and stock, and explain any price difference. Record the customer's preferred outcome even when assessment is still needed, and keep any store deadline or warehouse condition grade separate from the remedy decision.

Choose the return route for the case and record the instructions given to the customer. Note any return costs, who has agreed to cover them and any hand-off between the retailer, carrier or supplier.

Consumer Rights Under Australian Consumer Law (ACL)

Close the payment and item records

Before submitting a refund, check the purchase, previous refunds and approved amount. Record the approved refund amount, the method agreed for the refund, and the submission and payment references. Distinguish a submitted instruction from funds reaching the customer.

Inspect a returned unit before making it available to sell again. Record the customer decision and the item's destination separately: the stock grade is an inventory record, not a substitute for recording the case outcome.

Keep unmatched parcels and items on hold visible until someone resolves them. Close the case only after recording the customer outcome and updating the relevant item and payment records.

Understand external escalation

Give uncertain or contested cases an escalation owner to review the issue and record the internal decision or next step. Keep external reporting separate from resolving the customer's case.

The ACCC's Consumer rights and guarantees guidance explains consumer guarantees for businesses and consumers. The ACCC accepts reports about issues affecting consumers and businesses and uses them to inform its education, compliance and enforcement work. It may investigate if a business misleads consumers about their consumer-guarantee rights, and may take compliance or enforcement action.

The ACCC does not resolve individual disputes about whether the consumer guarantees have been met or what remedy applies. It does not provide legal advice about what consumers are entitled to or what businesses need to do in a particular situation. Make the retailer's decision and customer communication part of the case record; do not present an ACCC report as a decision on that case.

Review the process

Internal measures include time to first answer, cases waiting without an owner, time from item receipt to decision, repeat contacts and items without a stock destination. Keep requests, parcels, returned units, exchanges and refunds distinct rather than calling them all a return rate.

Set internal targets for response and decision times, then compare performance with those targets over time. Review difficult cases alongside the totals: a delay before inspection suggests a hand-off to examine, while repeated reports of a product mismatch suggest checking product information or supplied stock.

Key Performance Indicators for Returns Management