Add-on available
Sometimes customers aren’t always completely satisfied with a purchase and may wish to return it. If a suitable exchange cannot be found, your next option is to refund the order. But what if the customer wants to refund without receipts? What technical solution should you apply to not only satisfy the customer but also turn the refund into a selling opportunity?
In this article, we’ll reveal the secret to creating a smooth refund without receipts which benefits you and also the customers.
Each retail business can design its own refund policy. However, when customers purchase a defect item, they have the right to demand a refund without receipts.
Besides receipts, there are many other ways to trace back the purchaser of an order.
A credit card slip or order record saved in the retail system or even the say-so of a person who was present when the products were purchased are legally enough.
There are many reasons that can cause the customer to refund and exchange without receipts in the store:
- It could be a gift from their friends.
- The customer forgets the receipt somewhere, or they simply lost it.
In any case, it is best that the business has a good process to handle this situation, especially for those with a brick-and-mortar store.
Why refund without receipts?
Flexible customer policy means staying ahead of the competition
After 10 years of helping more than 70,000 customers grow their business, we at Magestore often receive many requests from customers for this type of refund process. It’s obvious that retailers need to offer a more excellent customer service over their competitors, including the refund service.
However, it doesn’t mean you allow unreasonable refund requests just because your customers don’t like the color or the design of the product.
By allowing customers to refund without receipts, you will make the buying decision of the customer more comfortable. They will have a good impression of how well you handled the situation and are more likely to recommend your service and product to others. Even better, they’ll be willing to give you a second chance by ordering more next time.
Explore solution: Track & manage items in real time for better inventory visibility
A safe refund process is possible
Retailers have to take steps to protect themselves from refund or return fraud, which costs businesses between $9 billion and $15.9 billion a year, according to a National Retail Federation study. If you wish to implement the process of Refund without receipts for your business, technology will do the hard part for you.
With the growth of omnichannel retail, you can apply a simple yet smart technical solution to handle the refund process safer across all sales channels.
For example, you can use a POS system that saves order history or payment methods to prove that the customer is the right purchaser or a system that can help you manage serial numbers of the products is also a good way to confirm a refund.
What to do when a customer requests a refund without receipts
To protect the business against refund or return frauds and also keep the customers coming back, you can offer these two common ways that many other companies apply to refund the payment:
- Refund by store credits/gift cards: Don’t let customers go to other brands. Instead, offer your store credits or gift cards to provide them with more options in the next purchase.
- Refund by other payment methods: In some cases, depending on the policy, your store can still refund in the same currency the customer paid such as via credit card, debit card, or even cash.
Depending on the way you choose to handle the refund, you need to create a refund process on your system to complete the request from customers.
What is the process for a refund without receipts?
Typically, the person who proceeds with the refund can be a salesman or cashier at stores. So a POS system that supports refund without receipts would be the best fit technical solution for your retail.
In case you have multiple stores or multiple channels to manage, using an omnichannel POS system will help your staff proceed with a hassle-free refund process from any location. It also provides a real-time inventory update when it comes to quantity changes after a refund.
If you’re a store owner and looking for a solution for this process in a physical store using a POS, then normally it proceeds as below:
1. If the customer requests a refund with a sales invoice (receipt), then you can do the payment refund with receipts as normal.
2. For refund without a receipt, the process is as followed:
Here is the step-by-step explanation for refunding without receipts flow:
- When the customer comes to the store to request a refund, the staff needs to check if they bring the order receipt or not. If no, the staff accesses the POS screen and switches to refund mode, and chooses the option “Refund without sales invoice”.
- Proceed to pay for the refund order by finding the product or scanning the barcode to make sure this is the product that the customer purchased from your store. The staff should be able to edit the amount of the refunded order or add a discount depending on the company policy.
- Staff then can find the customer account or create a new account for the customer.
- Choose refunds by store credits or by other available payment methods.
Sometimes customers aren’t willing to share their info when making a purchase. So when they return an item, the store can’t refund store credits to their available account. You would want to create a customer account when they refund without receipts and refunds by store credit/gift card. After a refund, the store credit amount of the customer will increase. - Complete the refund request.
- After being processed on POS, the information will be recorded and updated to the server automatically (in case you use an omnichannel solution that syncs data across channels). You can check quantity and generate reports if needed.
To sum up
The above solution is proposed by our retail experts. This knowledge is based on what we’ve been working with our retail customers for years. If you’re thinking about implementing the refund without receipts process on your retail model, contact our experts to get a free business consultation.
