rma portal

What should a return portal do for you?

Many companies tell us that they need a return portal. There are many return portals out there. See what a return portal should do.


Companies that sell products to their customers need to be prepared for product returns. No matter if you ship to businesses or consumers, returns can occur for different reasons:

  • The customer has bought a product and doesn't like it
  • The customer is using a product that has a defect
  • The customer has stopped using the product and wants to dispose of it

B2B, B2C, and D2C companies often tell us that they need a return portal.

What is a return portal?

A return portal is considered to be a piece of software that is available as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). With that in mind, what exactly is a return portal? We see there are in fact 3 return portals:

  1. A return portal that allows customers to create, ship, and track a return
  2. A return portal that allows customer service agents to manage returns
  3. A return portal allows warehouse operators to receive a return

Portal for customer returns

In most cases, companies are looking for option 1.

A tool that allows customers to create, ship, and track a return. In most cases, companies ask for a "Returns Portal" or an "RMA Portal". They need this portal to offer customers a "Returns Center" or "Return Tool".

There are many SaaS solutions that offer features like:

  • Enter an order number
  • Show the product that has been ordered
  • Select the products that have been ordered
  • Download a shipping label

The above features often are sufficient to set up a basic returns process. However, many of the existing tools have limitations. We believe the return portal should offer the right features and offer the flexibility to differentiate the returns process.

This is what a return portal should do:

General:
  • Support the option to design the portal in your brand identity
  • Support returns from different countries
  • Support returns for different return policies, such as returns, exchanges, and warranty
  • Support the option to activate and de-activate return policies per country
  • Integrate with any order management or commerce systems, such as Magento, Shopify, Salesforce, Hybris, and all others
  • Allow customers to select their preferred language

Create a return:

  • Support the option to add products from multiple orders to a return
  • Support the option to select products from a product database
  • Allow customers to add return reasons and service actions
  • Allow customers to save a return and complete it later
Authorize a return:
  • Support different authorization scenario's, such as manual and automated authorization
  • Create and authorize a return for your customer
Ship a return:
  • Allow customers to add a specific ship-from address
  • Support the option to ship to a designated returns warehouse location depending on the ship-from country
  • Support the option of specific shipping options per ship-from country
  • Allow customers to select from multiple shipping options
  • Allow customers to search for a drop-off location
  • Allow customers to see the specific shipping instructions
  • Download the shipping label
  • Download the packing list
  • Download the shipping invoice

Track a return:

  • Allow customers to select their preferences for email status notifications
  • Allow customers to contact you
  • Allow customers to track the status of a return
  • Allow customers to see an overview of all returns

You have found your return portal?

12Return supports a hosted portal that meets the requirements of your desired return tool. Have a look or see 12Return in action.

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