Yes, as fantastic as it may sound, it is true. Hipshipper offers Free International Returns for online sellers. Meaning, whatever the reason may be - damaged or wrong item, buyer's remorse and everything in between - Hipshipper will cover the return costs.

Why we do it?

We believe that the issue of international returns is a major pain point for both sellers and buyers.

The ‘returns thing’ has been mostly solved when in the domestic market, or is on a fast track to being solved with Amazon leading the way by favoring sellers who offer free returns. The same way Amazon paved the way to “free shipping” becoming the norm, “free returns” will soon follow - in the domestic market.

In the international market the issue of returns carries more complex, and costly, implications and thus is a more glaring point of possible conflict between the buyer and seller. Simply put, nobody wants to pay the expensive return shipping cost.

For sellers, shouldering the cost of return shipping practically means losing money on the sale. Meaning, after refunding the buyer for the item, the seller is left with the cost of the return shipping that puts him in the red. That is a risk that many sellers, especially smaller ones that work on slim margins, are very wary of taking - understandably so.

For buyers, getting an item that they don’t like, or didn’t order and having to pay the return shipping cost is no less frustrating; you didn’t get the product you hoped for, and you need to ‘lose’ the money on returning it.

Everybody loses. The seller that paid for the return costs will mark the buyer as “problematic” and won’t want his business again. The buyer that paid for the return costs will never buy from that seller again.

Basically, anytime ‘returns’ come up with regards to a cross-border sale, it’s not going to end well; one of the sides will feel cheated, or at least upset for losing money.

Does it answer the question why we do it?

Hipshipper offers Free International Returns as part of our master plan to ensure deal profitability on every cross-border sale for the sellers, and a little piece of happiness for the buyers.

By doing so we undo a conflict before it even begins. On top of the financial side, this is also highly advantageous for sellers in order to keep their ratings within the marketplace intact. Most marketplace conflicts / tickets get resolved in favor of the buyer. Hipshipper takes a seller-centric approach, actively helping marketplace sellers to protect their business.

We believe that as a shipping company we are uniquely situated to act as a go-between. Almost all conflicts between sellers and buyers in the ecommerce universe could be solved immediately if a third-party would ‘pick up the check’ for return shipping costs. So now it can, and Hipshipper is the one to enable it.