KUAISHOU has suspended "refund only"

Author | Zheng Qiao

Editor | Wang Xiaojuan

E-commerce platforms have finally begun to correct the "refund only" policy.

Recently, KUAISHOU E-commerce announced that due to adjustments in business content and comprehensive considerations, KUAISHOU E-commerce will abolish the "refund without return service" and will launch better service products for everyone to use in the future.

According to the official statement, for merchants who have already activated this service, KUAISHOU E-commerce will officially terminate the "refund without return service" on December 2. Merchants must actively terminate the contract before December 2, otherwise the platform will automatically terminate the contract with merchants who have not terminated it. For existing orders, the system will continue to execute according to the original configuration to ensure smooth transactions.

The "refund only" after-sales policy originated from Pinduoduo. In the past few years, Pinduoduo has rapidly risen with low prices, becoming a dark horse in the e-commerce industry. "Refund only," as an after-sales policy to protect consumer rights, has been an important tool for Pinduoduo's rapid rise and market capture.

Thus, starting from the end of 2023, Taobao and JD.com also successively supported buyers to request refunds only, making "refund only" gradually become a standard feature across major e-commerce platforms. KUAISHOU E-commerce also joined the "refund only" trend in January 2024.

The original intention of "refund only" was to better protect consumer rights, but as the policy was implemented, dissatisfaction among merchants gradually increased.

According to Wall Street News, during this year's "618" shopping festival, many platforms saw return rates for clothing reach 80% or even 90%. Since consumers can apply for refunds without returning goods due to product quality issues, a large number of merchants have suffered significant losses.

Despite merchants' dissatisfaction, Pinduoduo's "refund only" policy has not wavered.

Pinduoduo believes that for quality merchants, they have passed market tests in terms of product quality, shipping capability, and pre-sale and after-sale services, and are therefore hardly affected by the "refund only" policy; while for those inferior merchants who sell substandard products, provide poor service, or even engage in malicious fraud, the "refund only" policy serves as an effective elimination mechanism.

In recent years, this consumer-oriented approach has brought about several problems.

For example, some consumers have abused the rules related to the "refund only" feature, engaging in "shearing sheep" activities, leading to numerous disputes among merchants, platforms, and customers.

After being targeted by some "sheep shearing" parties, various "sheep shearing" tutorials have emerged, even forming a gray industrial chain for "sheep shearing."

Many merchants complain that due to the existence of "sheep shearing" parties, the abuse of the "refund only" policy has caused them economic losses, not only losing products but also bearing the costs of shipping and shipping insurance.

Additionally, merchants have pointed out that the platform is too biased towards consumers when handling "refund only" applications, putting them at a disadvantage in protecting their rights, leading to increased return rates, which in turn affects store ratings and sales performance.

As "refund only" has led to more and more buyer-seller disputes, relevant policy regulations have begun to emerge. The State Administration for Market Regulation's "Interim Provisions on Network Unfair Competition" officially came into effect on September 1, with Article 24 stating that platform operators must not use service agreements, transaction rules, and other means to impose unreasonable restrictions or additional unreasonable conditions on the transactions, transaction prices, and transactions with other operators of the operators within the platform In addition, on social media, topics such as "Is the e-commerce only refund policy really reasonable?" and "Behind the scenes of the only refund policy" have all made it to the trending search list. Wall Street Insights has learned that in the past month, the cumulative reading volume of the "only refund" topic has reached 220 million, with a discussion volume of 63,000.

Recently, various e-commerce platforms have made adjustments to the only refund policy. Taobao, Douyin, JD.com, and Pinduoduo are all trying to further balance the rights and interests between merchants and consumers by increasing protection clauses for merchants' rights, optimizing rules, and giving merchants and consumers more autonomy in handling issues.

Starting from August 9, Taobao adjusted its "only refund" policy: for merchants with a store experience score of ≥4.8, the platform will not immediately support only refunds but will recommend that consumers negotiate with merchants first. The higher the merchant's experience score, the greater the handling authority.

Douyin stipulates that when the product positive review rate is below 70%, it supports consumers for a full refund or return with free shipping; JD.com reserves the right to approve consumer refunds or returns based on product quality issues; Pinduoduo plans to optimize refund rules, granting more autonomy to merchants and consumers to balance the rights of both parties.

It is not difficult to see that e-commerce platforms are trying to find a new balance between user experience and merchant rights.

In the early stages, canceling the "only refund" policy may reduce consumers' shopping experience, thereby affecting the overall competitiveness of the platform. Although it may cause some controversy in the short term, in the long run, it will help the sustainable and healthy development of KUAISHOU's e-commerce business, retaining more merchants and providing higher quality and more efficient services on the platform.

In the process of canceling the "only refund" service, KUAISHOU e-commerce also faces the challenge of balancing the interests of all parties. On one hand, the platform needs to protect consumers' legitimate rights and interests, ensuring they can receive timely refunds when encountering product quality issues; on the other hand, the platform also needs to maintain the normal operating order of merchants and prevent economic losses caused by policy abuse.

The cessation of the "only refund" service by KUAISHOU e-commerce is also a new step taken by the platform in addressing this issue. E-commerce platforms need to consider long-term strategies for balancing the interests of merchants and consumers, continuously optimizing and improving service rules to achieve healthy and sustainable operations