2. Women’s Fashion was the cause of an increase in returns. Within this category, four
items were the reason.
13%
14%
15%
16%
17%
18%
19%
Week
13/12
Week
20/12
Week
27/12
Week 3/1
% Weekly Return Rate by
Supercategory
Electronics Home & Kitchen
Men's Fashion Mobiles & Tablets
Women's Fashion All Supercategories
12%
14%
16%
18%
20%
22%
24%
Week 13/12 Week 20/12 Week 27/12 Week 3/1
Weekly Return Rate by Category
Boots Dress Materials Jackets & Coats
Jeans Skirts Sunglasses
Tops & Tees All Categories
Product Code Category
366 Jeans
404 Jeans
420 Top and Tees
446 Sunglasses
3. The increase in product returns during the first week of January was caused by
four items that were recently introduced. Customers complained about their
quality and receiving the wrong items.
3800
4000
4200
4400
4600
4800
5000
27000
27500
28000
28500
29000
29500
Week of 12/27/15 Week of 1/3/2016
Productreturns
Numberoforders
Seasonality: Number of orders vs Product
returns
Number of orders Product returned
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Week of 1/3/2016 Week of 12/27/15
Women fashion products returned for performance or
quality not adequate
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Week of 1/3/2016 Week of 12/27/15
Women fashion products returned
because the wrong item was sent
0
100
200
300
400
500
Week of 12/13/15 Week of 12/20/15 Week of 12/27/15 Week of 1/3/2016
Reason of return for women fashion
products
RT01 RT02 RT03 RT04 RT05 RT06 RT07
RT08 RT09 RT10 RT11 RT12 RT13 RT14
+5%
+15%
4. Key recommendations: By auditing and fixing the current supply chain for these
products and introducing a systematic QA process to execute before any future
product lunch, Amazon can substantially decrease product returns.
Causal Factor Why? Recommendations:
PRODUCT CATEGORY: Return rates
increased within the Women’s
Fashion super-category.
•Return rates increased substantially for the category Jeans.
•Some wrong items were sent:
•366 (Jeans)
•404 (Jeans)
•420 (Top and Tees)
•446 (Sunglasses)
•They were products introduced recently. It
may be that there were errors in the
shipping process (e.g. the wrong codes
were assigned in the software that is used to
manage deliveries).
•Performance or quality wasn’t adequate for them.
•They were products introduced recently. It may be
that some mistakes were made when they were
produced. Or that merchandisers, designers and
suppliers are causing issues even before production
starts.
•Focusing on these 4
products:
•Do an audit of
the production
process.
•Do an audit of
the shipping
process.
•Do an audit of
the suppliers.
•Do an audit of
the rest of the
supply chain.
•Create a systematic QA
process that reviews the
entire process that goes
from design to supplier
selection to shipment
and is executed before
any future product
launch.
