How To Write a Return Policy For a Vape Shop: a Quick Break Down
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Your return rate can make or break your online vape shop. That’s why it is so important that you have a perfectly written return policy that protects you from and prevents you from losing any profit. At the same time, you want to be lenient enough so customers feel encouraged to shop in your vape shop, knowing they can return certain items. In today’s blog, we’ll teach about what you need to know to write a return policy and how to strike that perfect balance that will appease customers and will also protect your vape shop.
Table of Contents:
- What Is a Return/Refund Policy, and Why Is It Important For Your Online Vape Store?
- What Does a Typical Online Store Return Policy Need?
- What To Include In Your Refund Policy for Your Vape Shop?
- How To Reduce Your Return Rate
- Conclusion
What Is A Return/Refund Policy, And Why Is It Important For Your Online Vape Store?
A return or refund policy is a policy that sets the terms that need to be met for the customer to return their purchased goods back to the vape shop. If the terms and conditions aren’t met, then the customer can not return the item or receive a refund.
The type of policy you set in place can determine many different things and affect many customers’ purchasing decisions. While many customers won’t bother looking at the return policy, for some, the refund terms can make or break a purchasing decision. For example, if you are more lenient with your return policy and have a “30-day return policy, no questions asked,” this might encourage more customers to make purchases knowing they can easily return the item and get their money back.
However, at the same time, if you make your terms and conditions to liberal customers can take advantage of this policy, and you’ll soon find yourself losing profits due to shipping costs and another host of reasons.
What Does a Typical Online Store Return Policy Need?
A typical online store return policy needs to be simple and straightforward and also needs to be written in plain language. After all, you need to make it simple for all types of customers to understand. So when writing your refund policy, make sure to use plain language and clearly outline the terms.
Your policy also needs to be easy to find on your vape shop’s website. A devoted section either at the bottom of your website or in your site’s frequently asked questions portion should be perfect.
What To Include In Your Refund Policy for Your Vape Shop?
When creating your refund or return policy, you’ll want to include the following: how long does the customer have to return the item, what type of refund the customer will get, and who pays for shipping costs, the condition of the items when they are returned, if there are any additional fees when returning product, and more. Although you can add more terms and conditions, these four are essential to have when writing a return or refund policy.
How Long Does the Customer Have to Return the Item
You’ll want to clearly state the window of time the customer has to return an item. Whether it is ten days or 30 days, you need to specify a time. You can also create different time windows depending on the product. For example, vape devices can have a longer period of time, and vape juice (if you choose to return them) can have a shorter window of time.
What Type of Refund Does The Customer Get?
This is another term you need to specify. The most popular options are to either refund the credit card, provide store credit at the same amount that was spent, or simply replace the product with another of the same kind without making a cash or credit refund.
Who Will Pay for Shipping Costs
Since, as an online vape shop, you will deal with physical products and not digital goods, you’ll need to outline who will pay for the shipping costs clearly. If you decide to pay for the shipping, this will be an added expense every time somebody returns an item. At the same time, if you don’t pay for returns, customers will be less likely to purchase or do business with you again when it comes time to return an item. That’s why the way you set your shipping policies is so important.
The Conditions of The Items Upon Return
For online vape shops, it’s essential to state explicitly the condition of the terms in which you will receive damaged goods. For example, for eliquids, you might only accept them unopened and only able to be returned if the flavor is incorrect or the wrong nicotine level was sent, or there was an error in size.
For devices that arrive defective, you should clearly state that the customer service team will, at their discretion, decide if an item can be returned or not. By clearly stating that damage and defective products will only be returned at the discretion of the customer team, you won’t run the risk of customers abusing your return policy.
If There are Any Additional Fees When Returning a Product
Returning products cost money. Even if you decide to pay for the shipping back, other fees can occur like packaging, restocking, and others. That’s why it is important to clearly spell out these fees on your return or refund policy. The last thing you want is for customers to find out that they have to pay extra just to send back a product they want to return. By letting them know extra fees appear when returning an item, they will be better informed about the return process and won’t be caught off-guard.
How To Reduce Your Return Rate
After you create your return policy, you’ll probably want to know how to reduce your return rate. Here are some things that you can do to lessen the likelihood that customers will return your items. For example, you can:
- Write detailed product descriptions
- Use multiple product images
- Package products correctly
- Sell warranties
- Perfect your return policy
Write Detailed Product Descriptions
The first step in reducing return rates is to write detailed product descriptions that tell exactly everything the customer needs to know. By adding all the features, specs, and even product size, you’ll make sure that the customer gets all the information he needs to make a decision he won’t regret later and will ultimately end up as a returned item.
Use Multiple Product Images
This goes right alongside writing detailed descriptions. You want to make sure that you have images that clearly display the product and its colors. With a true-to-life image of what the products really look like, the customer won’t be disappointed when they receive the product. For bonus points, you can make every picture zoomable or provide a 360 point of view to showcase the products from all its angles.
Package Products Correctly
If you have been noticing a trend in products damaged in transit, then maybe it is time you reconsider your packaging. Switching to sturdier packaging will save you tons of money in the long run, and as a consequence of this, there will be fewer returned items that are broken and fewer items that you will have to pay ship back, or that you can no longer resell.
Sturdier packaged products will also discourage customers from taking advantage of your return policy since they will soon find that, if the products are packaged correctly, they will be less likely to break, and the customers will have a harder time explaining how the products arrived broken in transit and why the packaging did not work.
Sell Warranties
Sometimes products get lost in transit, arrive at the wrong address, or might be stolen. In these cases, your return policy might not cover these incidents, and the customer might feel as if he’s been tricked. To mitigate this, you should sell warranties and insurance at checkout; this way, you not only protect yourself from having to pay in in-store credit for items you can’t sell back, and your customer feels that he can get protection if a product gets lost, is sent to the wrong address, or is stolen.
Perfect Your Return Policy
Finally, in order to reduce your return rate, the most important thing to do is perfect your return policy. With a return policy that covers all instances that might occur to your products, you will save yourself money and headaches.
Conclusion
Now that you know all the things you have to include in your return or refund policy, the last thing to do is actually write your policy. We suggest you visit your competitors and take a look at their return policies. Remember that you might have two different policies for vape shops, one for eliquids and another for devices since eliquids shouldn’t be returned once they are opened. Once you read other policies, create your own by combining the best elements out of all the other policies, but remember that a return policy will always be changing until you figure out the exact policy that works for your online vape shop.
