Amazon – returns in Germany and Austria. What is APRL and more

Table of contents:

1. Amazon returns – what do you need to know?
2. Selling in Germany and Austria on Amazon – what do you need to be aware of?
3. Amazon returns – what’s changing?
4. Why is it worth being with us?
5. Summary

Amazon returns – what do you need to know?

The Amazon.de marketplace is one of the most important marketplaces for Amazon. If you have a foreign return address, e.g. German, Amazon will send the return label paid for to the customer itself after the customer has reported the return. It will only be the customer’s gesture to send the package to the right place. At a time when online sales are booming at the best of times, the consumer wants the most convenient conditions for both sales and returns. Until now, as a seller yourself, you had to manually check the claims associated with a reported return and your customer would receive such a label (if there was proper justification for the return) at your expense. Now Amazon is coming out ahead with its new solution.

Are you selling on Amazon? Or are you just thinking about it? Then read about the latest update that Amazon.de wants to introduce. It will take place on 31 October , and it will concern changes to returns processed by the seller. Below, we explain what exactly it will concern and how to prepare for it.

Selling in Germany and Austria on Amazon, what should I keep in mind?

Amazon returns in Germany

The most important thing to remember is to enter your billing information. Every seller on Amazon is required to enter a VAT number so that Amazon can determine how to account for tax.

Remember that if you are selling on the FBM model, it may be helpful to use the VAT- OSS procedure.

When starting to sell on Amazon, it is essential that you set up a return addresson Amazon . This is an important part of selling on this platform. Your customers will thus incur less return costs if they send them themselves.

For the moment, Amazon, after the seller verified the reported return, would send a prepaid return label to the customer, which the customer would use to send the package back. The seller, if it did not provide a return address within the buyer’s country, was required to cover the cost for shipping the return.

Global24, as a thriving company in the German market, has its individual return address right here.

Amazon returns in Austria

The returns handled by Amazon in Austria are basically no different to those in Germany. They work on the same principle, i.e. the customer submits the return, it is then verified by the seller. Subsequently, the customer receives a prepaid label, which can be posted at the relevant point, and the customer is then refunded for the order. Most orders processed by Amazon can be returned free of charge with a prepaid return label, i.e. by processing so-called prepaid returns.

An important note is that with Amazon.at you can use your return address in Germany.

Amazon returns – what is changing?

Returns with prepayment

The change, which comes into effect on 31 October, relates to Amazon’s update of its returns policy and, more specifically, introduces the requirement to send customers automatically prepaid return labels in Germany and Austria on reported returns.

If you don’t have a default German return address, Amazon will provide you withthe Amazon Prepaid Return Labelfeature , or APRL for short , which allows you to partner with a local carrier within Germany, such as DHL or DPD. You can enable this feature at Seller Central, then enter your DHL Paket Retoure recipient ID.

As of 31 October, all partners who use the German default return address must offer their customers prepaid return labels with tracking or non-refundable returns for returns that qualify for Amazon’s return policy.

APRL what is it? What are the benefits of activating APRLreturns ?

When you activate the APRL service, the return label will be generated as tracked and prepaid. Amazon will then automatically deliver it to the customer on your behalf for any automatically submitted return request. Please also note that not all product categories are exempt from APRL. What products are exempt from prepaid return labels?

These include:

• handmade, customised products,
• items classified by us as ‘dangerous goods’,
• product subcategories professional medical supplies and professional dental supplies,
• selected categories of food products and wine,
• product categories video, video games, software and DVDs,
• subcategories of products flowers and bouquets and fresh cut flowers,
• products classified as “hygienic” from the product categories child, beauty, health and personal hygiene, personal hygiene equipment,
• certified second-hand watches,
• business, industrial and scientific articles,
• non-physical items (for example, warranties, digital software or digital vouchers),
• items that are not legally returnable,
• heavy or bulky items whose weight and dimensions exceed those agreed with the carrier.

Additional exemptions include products returned when the carrier is out of reach, such as out of the country.

You can also set up a so-called non-return offer for certain items to offer the customer a full refund without returning the item. You can manage this with the Manage Returns function .

For items in the ‘fashion’ category (so clothing, shoes, jewellery, watches), Amazon requires free returns to be offered as part of Amazon’s free returns policy for fashion items. Once a fashion category product is returned via APRL, you can no longer charge the customer for return shipping in the ‘Return Order’ option when making a return. This applies to all fashion items listed in the clothing, shoes, jewellery or watches category.

Why be with us? Global24 goes out of its way to offer a return address in Germany.

If you don’t have a return address or are just thinking about putting one on Amazon, feel free to contact us! We offer a return address in Germany and also have return addresses within the EU and the UK. Returns from Germany are processed by us daily and sent back collectively to our Partners. Each Partner can manage the dispatch of returns themselves and adjust the settings according to their preferences. We offer preferential rates and tailor specific solutions to your needs.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contactus !

Summary

Next to eBay, Amazon is the most popular macretailer in the world. If you sell online, you know how important returns are, and the above changes to Amazon heavily touch on this issue. So now you know how to prepare for the upcoming changes. And if you still have any questions in terms of how to sell on Amazon, feel free to get in touch.