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Best return period?

by Christianwins
6 replies
Hi,

What return periods have you found that work the best?

Gary Halbert says that adding the return period will generally triple sales and double returns...so what have you found works the best (15, 30, 60 day, a full year, etc)?

Thanks,
Christian
#period #return
  • Profile picture of the author Pusateri
    Depends on what you're selling. We have a no time-limit return policy and have had one or two returns a year for the last six years.

    But we sell a high quality physical product to affluent people. Info products naturally have a higher refund rate just because the buyer doesn't have to take the trouble to pack it up and send it back.

    Your price point, your market and the quality of your product are all variables in the equation.

    If you go with one period without testing the others you might be satisfied with the result, but you will never know where the sweet spot actually is for your product.
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  • Profile picture of the author The Niche Man
    It seems 60 to 90 days is becoming the standard for most online products. 30 days is starting to seem wimpy to more buyers now.

    But many marketers are starting to raise the bar to 6 months, a year, even life time (yours).

    But of course your only real answer will come from testing a specific product.

    -Good Luck
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    • Profile picture of the author Mark Andrews
      Banned
      To answer the OP... the longer the better.


      Mark Andrews
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      • Profile picture of the author BambiFox
        Originally Posted by Mark Andrews View Post

        To answer the OP... the longer the better.
        2 years ago I helped sell (did the sales copy) a foreign language learning product (delivered online) and we split-tested the return guarantee. 15 day, 30, 45, 60, 90, 365.

        Sold over 300 for the test, (a little over 50 in each group) and the highest returns were 15 and 30 days. 5 and 4 respectively.
        For 45 and 60 days, 2 and 3 respectively.
        For 90 and 365 days, 0 and 1 respectively.

        We stuck with 365 for the rest of the campaign. After selling a total of 1100 additional products we had only 18 returns with the year long guarantee. I would figure that we gained 70 - 80 units paid for by having a longer return period.

        I know that it is just one case, but it stood out in my mind as fairly valid.

        Bambi
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  • Profile picture of the author alfid
    It depends on the trust you have in your product. If you are totally convinced of its quality, and believe that your customers will be more satisfied than they expected, then the longer the better...
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  • Profile picture of the author Don Grace
    Longer return policies have always worked better for me, 1 year, 5 years, and lifetime. The reason is because in the mind of the customer (ESPECIALLY in any market where the possibility of life changing information is at stake such as MMO) it gives them time to get lazy, put it on the back burner, and procrastinate to the point of forgetting (No matter how good the product is).

    Yeah I know that's a bit of a harsh way to put it, but it is true.

    Funny thing is though I've done the opposite (No refund policy) for higher ticket items and that worked just as well if not better given the ideal customers we wanted to work with.
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