On November 1, Jarek Lewis took to X (formerly known as Twitter) with a specific gripe: “I’m never selling Halloween costumes on Amazon again.” Lewis, who runs multiple six-figure Amazon FBA businesses, according to his LinkedIn profile, wrote that by the morning after October 31, he’d received more than 100 return requests from customers who bought Halloween costumes from him, claiming they’d bought them “by mistake.” He concluded the post by saying, “This is ridiculous.”
The viral post, which has amassed more than 17 million views on X as of November 5, highlights how inflation-weary consumers are increasingly gaming retailers’ return policies to save money. As e-commerce sales rise, customers return more times. As such, return fraud has become more common, with 57% of shoppers admitting to engaging in fraudulent returns at least once, according to a report published in August by Narvar, a logistics software firm. This year, return fraud incidents rose 16 percentage points to 52%, the same report found.
Industry experts, including seller agencies and returns abuse experts, said that this type of dishonest consumer behavior happens across retailers and marketplaces, but the practice is especially common on Amazon because of not only its size and scope but also its free, easy returns policy. Lewis’ experience highlights how dishonest returns can come at a steep cost to independent merchants.
“As a consultant, I actually advise sellers to avoid reselling or selling seasonal products like the plague,” said Jon Elder, CEO and founder at Black Label Advisor, which manages hundreds of brands. “This is one of the reasons.”
In an emailed statement, company spokesperson Maria Boschetti said Amazon values its selling partners and works hard to grow their businesses by protecting them from fraud and abuse. “We have robust grading processes for all items returned to Amazon, and we invest in significant resources and specialized teams to proactively detect, investigate and prevent fraud,” Boschetti said. “If we have missed something and a seller believes a customer return is not in compliance with Amazon’s return or refund policy, we provide sellers with the ability to report the abuse to us so we can investigate and take appropriate action.”
