Amazon refers to all refunds and returns issued by Amazon to the customer as "concessions". Concessions are often caused by defective products, misleading product descriptions, or defects in the sales, storage, or delivery process.
In this article, we explain how to analyze the Concessions Dashboard data to improve your vendor performance.
- What is the Amazon Concessions Dashboard?
- What are the reasons for concessions on Amazon?
- How can concessions analytics help reduce refunds?
- Conclusion
What is the Amazon Concessions Dashboard?
The Concessions Dashboard is available to Vendors in Vendor Central under the "Reports / Concessions Dashboard" tab.
The Concessions Dashboard consists of an overview showing a maximum of 20 products for which increased compensation payments or refunds have occurred. You can also see the reason given by the customer, e.g. because parts of the order were missing. No concessions are listed due to late delivery or other reasons for which Amazon is responsible.
In the Concessions Dashboard, you will get the following data:
- Vendor Code
- Product Group: e.g. food, apparel, beauty, etc.
- ASIN: the ASIN of the respective product.
- Product title
- Concession rate: the refund rate describes how often customers ask for a refund. If this is 4%, four out of 100 customers request a refund. Therefore, the lower the refund rate, the better your seller's performance.
- Concession Units: the column indicates in absolute numbers how many of the orders placed received a refund. The lower the number of pieces, the better
- Defect Category and Detailed Defect: the columns indicate the customer's reasons for returning the item.
You can narrow down or adjust the period under consideration, the Vendor Code, and the Product Group. You can also download the list as an Excel file.
The concessions are adjusted monthly and you will receive an email from Amazon informing you about the update.
Under concessions, depending on the complaint, Amazon pays the customer back, sends the customer a new product, pays the delivery costs in case of late delivery, or issues a voucher as compensation for a bad experience.
What are the reasons for concessions on Amazon?
The Concessions Dashboard displays one of the following defect categories per product:
| Defect Group | Description |
|---|---|
| Bad Detail Page | Customers rate the product detail page as incomplete or misleading |
| Fit/Style Issue | Customers are dissatisfied with the fit or style of a product |
| Missing Parts | Customers criticize that individual parts, accessories or labels are missing |
| No longer wanted | Customers may have placed an order by mistake or have changed their mind |
| Product defect | Customers complain that the order arrived damaged or defective |
If a customer wants to complain about an item, he clicks on "My orders" in Amazon and then on "Problem with order". The customer selects why he is dissatisfied with the product:
Then, the customer can request a return or contact the seller and you will see in the Concessions Dashboard what the customer specified in the complaint:
- Frequent keywords customers used: the information is based on keywords that customers have used in their feedback.
- Customer Reviews: click on "critical reviews" to go to your Amazon Reviews. Critical reviews are reviews that have received three or fewer stars.
- Date of solution (ETA) and Feedback: in the last two columns you can write solution suggestions. Answer the question how you would like to reduce refunds and click on "Save Feedback".
How can concessions analytics help reduce refunds?
The Concessions Dashboard gives you the ability to analyze your concessions data to better understand your customers' shopping experience.
First, it's important to analyze whether a complaint is even justified. If a customer placed an order by mistake or changed their mind after the fact, then you can't take a specific action. Depending on the product category, a certain number of returns cannot be avoided. For example, in the "Fashion" section, a certain item is always returned because it does not fit buyers. Therefore, it is important to monitor the concessions dashboard over a longer period time and check, e.g. with the help of Excel, whether the refund rate is actually above the expected average.
If a product stands out in the overview, it is important to investigate the cause:
- Read "Bad Detail Page in the reimbursement category column, then check your product description. Correct any incorrect or inaccurate information and add any missing information to the product description. Also, add what the product is not suitable for if you find that your product is often used incorrectly.
- If customers return the product because they are unhappy with the Fit, update the exact size information. If applicable, add information that the item tends to run small/large.
- If your product is claimed to be defective, you should implement stricter quality checks
- If the customer complains that parts of the order were missing, check that all parts, accessories, and labels are complete
- If the product is increasingly arriving damaged to customers, optimize your shipping packaging and equip it with better shipping protection
In addition, check whether the negative reviews match the information in the Concessions Dashboard. Often, you'll find more valuable clues here about what you need to work on. In another article, we explained in detail how you can use scripts analyze Amazon reviews.
Likewise, you can use the Concessions Dashboard to check whether the actions you have taken are having an effect. If you received the complaint "Bad Detail Page" and add it to your product description, then you can subsequently look in the Concessions Dashboard to see if this type of complaint has decreased over time.
To do this, download the Concessions Dashboard data for individual months, for example, and observe the progression of refund rates over time. Here, however, you must be careful that small numbers of cases (orders/refunds) quickly lead to large jumps in the rate.
Conclusion
The information in the Concessions Dashboard represents valuable feedback from your customers. Using the Concessions Dashboard, you can better understand poor customer experiences and work to meet their needs.
As a Vendor, the Concessions Dashboard allows you to indirectly engage with your customers. With defect categories, i.e. why the customer returned a product, you get structured information compared to customer reviews. You can identify the reasons why customers request refunds for your products and come up with concrete solutions.
