How to Prevent Walmart Marketplace Returns and Cancellations

Amazon and eBay are the two household names of eCommerce, but the Walmart Marketplace is on the rise. Third-party sellers can sell their products on Walmart’s website for exposure to their millions of customers. The Walmart Marketplace has been growing and improving since its inception in 2009. Walmart’s Marketplace return policy allows most orders from the marketplace to be returned to Walmart stores. While this return policy is great for customers and can make them feel more confident making purchases on the marketplace, it can negatively impact the businesses selling on it. 

Customer returns and order cancellations are detrimental to an eCommerce business and always come with consequences. Luckily, there are some key steps you can take to reduce the returns and cancellations on your Walmart Marketplace store. In this post, we share some of the best ways to prevent Walmart Marketplace Returns and Cancellations. 

Drawbacks of Walmart Marketplace Cancellations and Returns for Sellers

Cancellations and returns on the Walmart Marketplace are a lost sale, but they also impact your business in other ways. When a customer cancels an order due to low inventory or returns it, the interaction costs you time and money. Return deliveries will cost U.S eCommerce retailers around $550 billion by 2020. Sellers must bear the full weight of return shipping costs and restocking fees on the Walmart Marketplace and then must invest additional money to resell the returned merchandise. You must also invest more time on customer service and dealing with returns. Small businesses will feel the impact most as they must pour limited resources into reselling the merchandise. 

Many returns and cancellations will also impact your Order Defect Rate which will, in turn, hinder your Seller Performance rating on the Walmart Marketplace. If returns are made because a customer did not like the product or had a bad experience with the seller, they made lead to negative reviews which will deter future customers. 

The Most Common Reasons Walmart Marketplace Orders are Returned or Canceled

There are many different reasons why a customer may return or cancel an order. Some of these reasons you have the power to change. Here are some of the most common ones. 

• Inaccurate or vague descriptions 
• Buyer error or buyer changed their mind
• Fraudulent returns force a cancellation. 
• Seller cancellation from low inventory. 
• Auto cancellation if the order is not shipped within 10 days. 

Reduce Walmart Marketplace Returns and Cancellations

You will always have some returns and cancellations when selling on the Walmart Marketplace. However, there are some key steps you can take to reduce the numbers and improve customer satisfaction. 

• Detailed, accurate listings. Make sure your descriptions are clear and include every reasonable detail. Accurately choose the category and product attributes (like brand name, color, size, etc). Create a unique, user-friendly title with relevant keywords. Include all important information and specs in the description, as well as keywords. 
• Item imagery. Include multiple high-quality photos that show all the angles of your product in good lighting. Add close-up photos that show texture and shots of your product in action. If relevant, consider adding images with ruler measurements/ capacity samples to show the size. 
• Walmart’s two-day shipping. Amazon Prime’s free two-day shipping has set the standard for eCommerce shipping. Joining Walmart’s two-day shipping program helps you rank higher in search results, boosts your odds of winning the Walmart Buy Box, lowers cart abandonment, and increases conversions. 
• Leverage customer feedback. Customer reviews are very powerful and will help convert shoppers. According to research at Boston University, products with more reviews are less likely to be returned. Positive reviews encourage sales, but negative reviews can help you make adjustments to limit returns. 
• Relax the return period. Offering a more generous return period can even help reduce overall returns! How? By making the return period longer, you decrease the urgency of making a decision to keep or buy. Therefore, the topic of returning is less in the forefront of buyer’s minds. 
• Analyze returns. The Returns and Refunds dashboard in your Seller Center is a critical tool for reducing your Walmart Marketplace returns. Assess which products are returned most often and the most common reasons your customers are returning items. Respond to the feedback to reduce your number of returns. 
• Use inventory management software. Mismanaged inventory leads to cancellations. Inventory management software is the best way to avoid running out of inventory and is especially helpful for multichannel eCommerce businesses. 

Listing Mirror is Here to Help 

The top reason Walmart Marketplace sellers have to cancel an order is due to improper inventory management. Listing Mirror is here to fix that. With inventory syncing and warehouse management features, our best-selling multi-channel product listing software will help you reduce returns and cancellations on all of your channels. Learn more about how we will help you sell more and work less by visiting our website or contacting us HERE.