If you sell on Amazon and your products are fulfilled via FBA, then Amazon handles customer support and returns without your input. Sellers need to monitor their account for returned products that are not fit for resale and ask Amazon to send them back or dispose of them. A new program being piloted adds liquidation options as well. Fees apply for FBA returns as well as removal orders and disposal.
If you sell on Amazon and fulfill orders yourself, then you will be responsible for handling customer returns. The policy here is clear: you must match or exceed Amazon’s own return policy, which gives customers 30 days to send most products back.
So, technically, sellers can set their own ecommerce returns policy, but in reality they have little flexibility in what it says. Not only that, Amazon does not give you a free choice over whether to accept each return, as it automatically authorizes most returns and provides prepaid shipping labels at your expense.
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Amazon sellers are required to issue refunds within two business days, but that is also being automated so that refunds are automatically sent when the shipping carrier receives the parcel from the customer, with a system called Refund at First Scan (RFS). This also means you will not have an opportunity to inspect the returned order before the refund is sent.
If sellers do not provide a return address within the US, they have to provide a prepaid return label, or offer a full refund without asking for the item to be returned.
In summary, Amazon sellers must have a generous returns policy with fast approvals and refunds. This opens the door to abuse of the system as well as outright fraud. Sellers will have to argue their case with Amazon if they think a refund has been issued incorrectly, and should expect Amazon to side with the customer most of the time.