Return Amazon They are free and easy for buyers, but they are risky and expensive for small businesses that sell most products on the world’s largest electronic commerce site. Returns have led some sellers to leave the popular program by Amazon, while others told CNBC that they would like to abandon the platform completely.
In the heart of the problem there is a great increase in returning fraud, which has led customers to receive the products used when they ordered something new. In two particularly atrocious examples that involve products for babies described in CNBC, Amazon sent customers who used diapers and a cooler with the rotten chest milk of another person inside.
“I really don’t think consumers understand how many small businesses are in Amazon and how their return habits affect small businesses and families like mine,” said Rachelle Baron, owner of Beau and Belle Littles, who sells reusable swimming diapers on Amazon.
Baron said his business collapsed after an incident back with Amazon. The electronic commerce platform sent dirty swimming diapers to customers after used babies products had been returned to Amazon, said Baron.
“Actually, there were two diapers that were sent that were poopias,” he said.
In 2024, almost 14% of all the United States retail The yields were fraudulent, compared to 5% in 2018, according to a report by the National Federation of Retails. In total, the report found that the returns cost the retailers $ 890 billion in 2024.
Amazon began charging sellers in their compliance program (FBA) a new rate in June 2024 for articles that exceed certain performance rate thresholds. Sellers registered in FBA trust Amazon for logistics, including shipping, packaging and returns.
In September, a couple of months after the rate entered into force, the Helium 10 electronic commerce group saw return rates for US Amazon sellers. UU. Fall almost 5%.
“He is forcing the seller to have higher quality lists and higher quality products,” said the general manager of Helium 10, Zoe Lu.
Amazon also has He began adding a warning label to some “frequently returned elements”, which could be contributing to the sauce.
Prices for increase
However, the new rate can also lead to the increase in prices.
A survey conducted by the SmartScout Electronic Analysis Company found that 65% of sellers said they raised prices in 2024 directly due to Amazon rates changes. Other sellers said that CNBC Returns Fraud is the reason why prices have increased.
In total, CNBC spoke with seven Amazon sellers to find out how they are handling the growing cost of yields.
“We are running with approximately more than 1% net profits on Amazon, totally due to fraud and return abuse,” said Lorie Corlett, who sells cases of protection of Sterling Spectrum for hot wheels. She said her return rate is 4% in Amazon and only 1% in other markets such as Walmart. “It is really Amazon what is responsible at the end of the day. People would stop doing it if Amazon took them responsible.”
Amazon told CNBC that it does not have fraudulent returns tolerance and that it takes measures against some scammers. These measures include denying reimbursements and requiring customer identity verification.
Mike Jelliff sells professional music team through its Geekstands brand in Amazon and eight other markets. He said that his return rate on Amazon is three times higher than the average you see elsewhere.
“In eBayWe are allowed to block specific customers, “said Jelliff.” But in Amazon, that client can still repurchase. “
Jelliff showed CNBC the system of approximately 40 cameras that he has installed in his Tyler warehouse, Texas, to track each outgoing article, incoming return and unboxing. Use the images when presenting appeals against Amazon, even when customers request reimbursements claiming that they never receive an article. It maintains a blacklist of repeat offenders who commit this type of fraud and those that return the articles used and damaged, which become a total loss for him.
Amazon has made some improvements in its return process, said Jelliff, who does not trust FBA. This includes Amazon that allows small businesses to make multiple calls to fight a fraudulent return. Amazon has also allowed Jelliff to opt for the output of automatic return labels for items greater than $ 100 from 2023, and its return rate has decreased since then.
Mike Jelliff on his Geekstands Warehouse in Tyler, Texas, on June 6, 2025. Jelliff sees three times more returns from his professional musical team on Amazon, compared to the average in other markets such as Ebay and Walmart.
Jacob Schatz
Why are returns destroy
Discovering what yields are fraudulent and which are ready for resale is intensive in labor and specific of the article, experts said. That creates a lot of space for error.
“Because it is such a big operation, things are lost,” said Lu de Helium 10. “I think the margins are probably lost, but these stories are very shocking because it is a recognition for the brand.”
The founder of Ceres Chill, Lisa Myers, who once trusted Amazon to handle returns for her business as part of FBA, has one of these stories.
In 2023, Amazon sent one of Ceres Chill’s products to a customer with the rotten breast milk of another person inside, said Myers, and added that the client wrote a review saying: “He will never forget that smell.”
“To have something, and I do not want to be dramatic, but dangerous, the body fluids of another person in their kitchen rot in something that was intended to use for their son is unacceptable,” said Myers. “That is the time I broke crying and I sat and thought, I have no idea how this could have happened.”
Myers said he left FBA after the incident, leaving benefits behind how to have his products labeled with Amazon’s main badge.
“Our business hurts not to participate in Fulfilled By Amazon,” said Myers. “We are not willing to do so, we will never give profits to security and, frankly, the mental health of our clients.”
On the other hand, Myers outsternizes all his returns for the specialist in Baby Reells GoodBuy Gear, who is on the way to selling 200,000 products for returned this year.
Come back
Kristin Langenfeld began GoodBuy Gear when she was a new mother who struggled to find a good quality and used jog stool.
“We have spent the last nine years building a database that has all products and variations, common problems, retreats,” Langenfeld said. “For some of these, there are 40 points that we inspect on the article itself, and it is really complicated.”
Langenfeld showed CNBC the process in its warehouse in Malvern, Pennsylvania, where each article is inspected for approximately 15 minutes and is generally managed by at least four employees. The intensive resource process is paying off. She says that 33 new sellers enrolled in 2024, three times more than the previous year. And with the business growing 50% year after year, it is updated to a larger warehouse in Columbus, Ohio.
He was inspired to handle the returns after visiting the returns warehouse of an important retailer five years ago.
“Recorded on the floor there were signs that said ‘incinerate’ ‘, destroy’,” he said.
The yields generated approximately 29 million metric tons of carbon emissions in 2024, and 9.8 billion pounds of yields ended up in landfills, according to the Inverse Logistics Software Supplier Optoro.
Amazon has faced criticism for destroying millions of pounds of unused products. In 2022, Amazon told CNBC that he was “working towards an objective of eliminating zero products”, but would not give a timeline for that ambition. Three years later, that goal is still in process, and Amazon tells CNBC in a statement: “The vast majority of returns are shown as new or used, they are returned to sales partners, liquidated or donated.”
In 2020, Amazon added two new options for sellers to dominate returns. “Degree and Refer” allows all US FBA vendors. Uu. Have Amazon’s yield and mark it as “used” before selling it. FBA liquidation allows sellers to recover some losses when downloading palettes of property for resale in the secondary market through liquidation partners such as liquidity services.
There is also a FBA donation program that has existed since 2019, allowing vendors to automatically offer eligible oversock and return to charity groups through the non -profit organization Good360. Amazon told CNBC that these sellers programs give a second life to more than 300 million items a year.
For buyers who want to maintain the returns of incineration or landfills, Amazon also has options.
Amazon Real has used and open items, Amazon Renaved sells restored items and Amazon Outlet sells Oversock. The Daily Deal Woot! Customers can also exchange certain electronic, such as devices, phones and Amazon tablets, for Amazon gift cards or send them to the company’s certified recycler.
“I hope that the change we can make as a country is that we stop shitting,” said Langenfeld. “We should make high quality products for resale.”
