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30 Day return policy - Your experience & testing?

by Mcoroklo
18 replies
Most products has a 30 day return policy now a days, which I guess, is a good thing. I would like to ask you guys some questions though:
  • How many percent does your sales go up when you offer a return policy vs. none?
  • How many percent will ask for a refund on average with a good products (I know the answer is it depends, but just give a very rough estimate)
  • What have provided the biggest income for you: Using 30 day return policies or not?
  • Have you have problems with chargebacks/others even if you didn't offer the policy?

Thanks!
#day #experience #policy #return
  • Profile picture of the author webapex
    Aren't you legally bound to provide a return policy?

    I have heard from some marketers that by extending their return policy beyond the clickbank enforced term, to like 90 days or a year, they actually end up getting fewer returns, since buyers will toss the product in a corner, procrastinate on returning it and eventually forget about it.

    Extended return policies can hurt your merchant account limits, since your actual net revenues are unknown until warranties expire.
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    • Profile picture of the author WillR
      Originally Posted by webapex View Post

      Aren't you legally bound to provide a return policy?
      Not that I am aware of.

      Obviously there are basic consumer rights but these differ from country to country. In Australia I know consumers are well within their rights to ask for a refund, even if the business does not have a refund policy, if the product is not fit for it's intended purpose. An example of this would be purchasing a jumper which you then take home and find out it has a hole in it.

      Other than that, change of mind refunds, etc can only be done if the business offers a refund policy that allows for that.

      There are also certain places online you are forced to give some type of refund policy. With Clickbank that is a standard 60 days from the date of purchase.
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    • Profile picture of the author KirkMcD
      Originally Posted by webapex View Post

      Aren't you legally bound to provide a return policy?
      Depends on the jurisdiction, but having a policy isn't the same as allowing returns.
      Your policy can be "No returns."
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  • Profile picture of the author Bruce NewMedia
    Originally Posted by Mcoroklo View Post

    • How many percent does your sales go up when you offer a return policy vs. none?
    • How many percent will ask for a refund on average with a good products (I know the answer is it depends, but just give a very rough estimate)
    • What have provided the biggest income for you: Using 30 day return policies or not?
    • Have you have problems with chargebacks/others even if you didn't offer the policy?....
    This is probably not the answer you are looking for, but in my experience, all these questions do not have definitive answers. It would vary from marketer to marketer, product to product, niche to niche, and especially, the buyer 'group' themselves.

    For example, a well-known marketer, sending an email about his own program, might offer no refunds and not have it affect his sales at all.

    While an unknown, selling a high-priced 'mystery' product might experience poor sales without a generous refund guarantee.
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  • Profile picture of the author NerdGary
    MBG are very important.. it serves as a buyer 'lovie blanket'
    Alot of sales include 'hype'.. so people want to be secure if they jump in, they can find the exit.
    Def. a MUST in any sales pitch.... (save it towards the end)
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  • Profile picture of the author Mcoroklo
    The problem is we mainly sell digital products, so there shouldn't be some rules against having no return policy. At least, in Denmark where I am from, there is no rules about it.

    What I am looking for is not whether I could include/exclude the return policy, but if has any concrete numbers/experiences before/after implementing a return policy? Anything?
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  • Profile picture of the author mr2monster
    • How many percent does your sales go up when you offer a return policy vs. none?
    I've noticed absolutely zero difference in sales when offering a refund policy vs not.

    • How many percent will ask for a refund on average with a good products (I know the answer is it depends, but just give a very rough estimate)
    My refund rate is very low... in the neighborhood of .5% That is VERY subjective as to where you're selling your products, however.. If you're selling on clickbank, I'd expect a considerably higher refund rate just because people know they can get the product for free from clickbank by being serial refunders.

    • What have provided the biggest income for you: Using 30 day return policies or not?
    Again, no difference.. My biggest income has come from selling leads, which there are rarely refunds on. When referring to my information products, my biggest source of income has been when I create a new product. Refund policy is once of those fine tuning things you have to test, it's probably not going to take an unsuccessful product and make it wildly successful (although I could be wrong).

    • Have you have problems with chargebacks/others even if you didn't offer the policy?
    Only had 1 chargeback, fought it, beat it.





    I just passed 2500 copies of my products sold (multiple products). So, take that into consideration as well. Frankly, I'm not sure if 2500 copies is a lot or not.
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  • Profile picture of the author WhiteDove
    According to Eban Pagan, there is proof that sales increase when you remove the risk by adding a guaranteed refund.

    The more you believe in your product, whether its 30 days or 90 days you want the prospective buyer to feel no risk whatsoever.. the risk should totally be on you.

    As for myself, I won't buy if there is no guarantee of hassle free money back guarantee.
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    • Profile picture of the author TheWealthSquad
      My answer will be different than most because my experience is in running a service business offline and a higher end coaching business online.

      Offline service business offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee with no real deadline. We have been in business and have averaged less than 1% refunds (some were real issues and some were people working the system.)

      Higher end coaching business also had a strong refund policy. Can't remember the exact terms but the refund rate was very low as well.

      Guarantees are based on the principle of risk reversal. Risk reversal is the concept that you are taking the risk out of the customers pocket and putting it into yours. If you have trust built up with your clients they need LESS risk reversal to make a purchase.

      From research I have read higher priced ticket items actually have lower refund rates than lower priced ones. The mentality of the people buying the product is different.

      I do agree with the poster who stated it depends on your market, demographics, etc. Each market is going to be different. The only real way is to split test it.

      Sales letter A has a strong money back guarantee. Sales letter B has no guarantee or a very weak one. See which one works for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Worner
    I don't think your question can really be answered with any degree of accuracy since there are so many variable and extranious variables that can effect a products refund rate. For example, if you have affiliates, depending on the affiliates marketing strategy and how well they have pre-sold their leads, you will get varying refund rates between all of them. Then there is the market itself.

    I could go on but I think you get the picture.

    -Chris
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  • Profile picture of the author Cataclysm1987
    I don't think anyone has exact numbers on this, but I would imagine it improves conversions by about 1-2 percent if you have a great guarantee.
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  • Profile picture of the author Christophe Young
    From research I have read higher priced ticket items actually have lower refund rates than lower priced ones. The mentality of the people buying the product is different.
    This is very interesting. I suspect the reason is because it takes more balls to request a refund for a higher priced product. It does take some courage for anyone to ask for a refund, no matter the cost. Trying to get even more money back might take even more courage.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dann Vicker
    You don't have to think twice about it. Give your prospects any doubt as to the authenticity of what ever you are selling them by having a NO RETURNS POLICY, and they'll close your page faster than a formula 1 race car.

    Don't allow your competitors have this edge over you. It's a part of online business to offer refunds for digital products. If you are selling services however, it's a different ball game altogether.
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  • Profile picture of the author MaxReferrals
    Our experience has been:

    The longer the guarantee period, the HIGHER the take rate and the LOWER the refunds.
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    • Profile picture of the author mattflynn
      Originally Posted by MaxReferrals View Post

      Our experience has been:

      The longer the guarantee period, the HIGHER the take rate and the LOWER the refunds.
      One reason this may be, is customers may just forget they ever purchased the product. As an example, a 365 day guarantee most would just forget about anyway!
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