Amazon Sellers Dismayed by Longer Holiday Returns Policy

Each holiday season, Amazon extends its returns policy to give shoppers confidence that gifts bought early may still be returned after Christmas. This year, it’s making the policy even more generous to buyers, leaving some sellers dismayed.

Today, Amazon informed sellers of the policy, announcing the following:

“The Amazon Extended Holiday Return Policy for 2020 requires that most orders delivered between October 1 and December 31 be returnable through January 31, 2021. This policy includes orders that are shipped by you and orders that are shipped by Amazon.

“Although the return window for most orders is extended, it can vary by category. You can see the return deadline in each category on our Returns Help page.”

It also provided a link for sellers to learn how to update the Returns & Refunds section of their seller detail page to advise customers of the extended holiday return policy.

In previous years, the holiday policy kicked in on November 1st, but this year, the Amazon Extended Returns policy kicks in on October 1st:

“So halloween products have four months to be returned. Sure what could go wrong,” commented one seller.

“Wow 4 months free rental!!!” wrote another seller, the sarcasm obvious.

You can find the full announcement on Amazon Seller Central.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.