Handling Product Returns

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to use the standard product returns workflow to handle product returns.

Handling Product Returns

Without the ability to try products before buying, online shoppers often rely on a quick, smooth returns process to protect them from a false purchase.

For companies, returns can lead to higher costs, but also to great opportunities. Customers are more likely to buy a product they are uncertain of if they can rely on a solid returns process. This fallback option can increase sales, as customers can end up buying items they wouldn't have even tried had a return option been unavailable or overly complicated.

In this lesson we'll focus on how SAP Commerce Cloud handles returns.

This image shows the standard Order Management process, with Returns highlighted at the end.

Self-Service Returns for Customers

SAP Commerce Cloud empowers customers to initiate and manage returns themselves. This self-service functionality streamlines the returns process and reduces the need for customer service intervention.

Requesting a Partial Return:

Customers like Haru can return an entire order or specific items from an order.

Note

The return process is typically related to physical goods. It becomes available after they have been successfully delivered or picked up in the store. Digital goods, such as media streams (MP3, MP4) or warranty extensions, are not returnable after purchase.

In the Order History section of his account, Haru can open any completed order to request a return. Orders that have not yet been delivered can obviously not be returned. Until an order is shipped, Haru can cancel it. After this, only returns are available.

Initiate Return: Haru clicks the Request a Return button. The return order window appears.
Specify Quantities: He enters the quantity of each item to be returned in the Quantity to Return fields. Or he can return the entire order by choosing "Set all Quantities to maximum".
Submit Request: In the next step, after clicking continue, he can now check the provided overview and then submit the return request.

The return request will now be visible in the Returns tab of Haru's Order History. A customer support agent now needs to approve the return. Until this has happened, the return will have the status "Approval Pending".

To cancel the return request, he can open the return and choose "Cancel Return Request" at the top of the screen.

Approving and Managing Returns in Backoffice

Once a return has been requested, customer support staff need to review the request and approve or deny it. Any of the 3 standard users (CustomerSupportAgent, CustomerSupportManager, CustomerSupportAdministrator) has the necessary rights in out of the box SAP Commerce Cloud.

For this, Customer Manager Sarah can sign in to the Customer Support Cockpit and, under Returns, view all available returns.

The major returns statuses include:

Pending Approval: The return has been requested but has not yet been decided upon by support staff.
Wait: The return has been approved, and the returned products are being waited for.
Canceled: The return was canceled by either the seller or customer.
Completed: The goods have been returned and accepted by warehouse staff.

When Sarah opens a return, she gets an overview of different details. She can see the product, the cost of the purchase, any discounts applied, and the delivery costs. She can now choose to either approve or cancel the return request (1).

Note

With a little development work, customers can set up their SAP Commerce Cloud system to at this point automatically send a return label to the customer requesting the return.

Sarah can also decide to refund delivery costs to the customer (2) in addition to the cost of the product.

Screenshot of a return request in the Customer Support Cockpit, with delivery refund option and approval / cancelation options highlighted.

If Sarah decides to cancel a return, she must provide a reason in a wizard that appears after clicking the Cancel button.

Accepting Returns:

Not all returned items arrive in pristine condition. Warehouse staff like Jet can therefore accept goods that are returned, or cancel a return at the last moment.

Warehouse users have a Returns navigation node in the Order Fulfillment Cockpit with a child node called Waiting for Goods.

Here, Jet can find approved returns with returned goods still outstanding. When the goods arrive at the warehouse, he can inspect the goods and then open the corresponding item in his Waiting for Goods list.

Screenshot of the Order Fulfillment Cockpit showing the Waiting for Goods node.

This will show him which products to expect, along with other details of the purchase.

If the goods are in good condition, he can accept them.

If they are damaged or incomplete, he can cancel the return.

Screenshot showing a goods return for a warehouse employee, with the option to accept or reject returned goods highlighted.

Watching a Return in Practice

In this video we'll watch customer Haru, Customer Support Manager Sarah, and Warehouse Administrator Jet as they all do their part to complete a return.

Summary

Customers can request partial or complete returns through the storefront via their Order History, specifying the quantities of items to return.
Returns can be canceled by both vendor staff and by customers.
Customer Support staff can approve or cancel returns in the Backoffice Customer Support Cockpit. If they have sufficient user rights (such as Administrators in the standard setup), they can even change the refund amount.
Warehouse staff must process goods when they are returned. They can either accept or cancel the return if the returned products are damaged or incomplete.

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