Warehouse Returns Process
In the normal course of business, customers are likely to return orders from time to time due to various reasons and business should design processes the manage and accept such returns. A well designed returns management process can reduce costs and issues associated with returns or exchanges.
What do we mean by Return?
In the normal course of business, customers are likely to return orders from time to time due to various reasons and business should design processes the manage and accept such returns. A well designed returns management process can reduce costs and issues associated with returns or exchanges.
The term “Return” is understood as any goods returned to the warehouse by the end customer, retail outlet or courier for any reason, and all packed release orders where the release has been cancelled for any reason.
Returns in e-Commerce Business
Handling returns is one of the major problems for online stores. Customers often send products back without any notification and sometimes it becomes difficult to determine who returned the products and why.
Return Process
- A return is the process of handling the return of products from a customer to the distribution center (DC).
- Returns can be either created against a Return Order or created without an Order reference.
- Once the business obtains information from the end customer that the return of goods has been requested, it should create an return order
- An electronic return order shall contain reference to the original release order, scheduled return delivery date and the reason for the return
- Once a Return Order is created and confirmed, a supervisor usually authorizes the return.
- The warehouse should schedule to receive the return on the day specified in the return note
- When receiving returns with an Return Order, receipts are recorded through the Record/Report Receipt action
- Receipt of the return shall be understood as physical unloading of the delivery and preparation of the necessary documents conforming receipt of the goods in the warehouse
- The details of the receipt are entered and the receipt for the Return Order is then marked Closed.
- Returned goods need to be accepted into stock
- The closure of the receipt triggers the generation of Putaway tasks.
- During the receipt of returned goods, there may be a requirement to perform an inspection
- Discrepancies need to be recorded in the system
- A return is considered accepted when the goods appear in stock and become available for release or when all returned goods have been accepted into stock as damaged goods.
Related Links
You May Also Like
-
Business Case of Multiple Warehouses
Adding extra warehouses to business provides many benefits such as reducing shipping costs, increasing storage capacity, and having warehouses for specific purposes to simplify overall warehouse management. Multiple warehouses allow you to organize your inventory in a way that helps your business be more effective.
-
When products arrive at a facility, there need to be a defined process to let them in. The process for accepting inventory when it arrives is called "Receiving". Any warehousing operation must be able to receive inventory or freight from trucks at loading docks and then stow them away in a storage location. Receiving often involves scheduling appointments for deliveries to occur, along with unloading the goods and performing a quality inspection.
-
Resource Planning is the process of planning for expected workload and determining the number of resources required to complete each activity in the warehouse. There are many types of warehouse positions, and they also vary by the employer, the scale of operations and location. Discussed here are generic positions applicable to warehouse management processes.
-
Inventory is money, and hence businesses need to perform physical inventory counts periodically to make sure that their inventory records are accurate. The traditional approach to conducting inventory counts is to shut down a facility during a slow time of year to count everything, one item at a time. This process is slow, expensive, and (unfortunately) not very accurate.
-
One of the warehousing best practices that retailers like Walmart, Amazon, and Target have adopted is known as cross-docking. During this process the inbound products are unloaded at a distribution center and then sorted by destination, and eventually reloaded onto outbound trucks. In real parlance, the goods are not at all warehoused but just moved across the dock (hence the name).
-
In the normal course of business, customers are likely to return orders from time to time due to various reasons and business should design processes the manage and accept such returns. A well designed returns management process can reduce costs and issues associated with returns or exchanges.
-
Miscellaneous Warehouse Processes
At the end of each inventory control, the Contractor provides the Ordering Person with an inventory report which contains a list of all stock adjustments. The Ordering Person uses the report to create, by use of his/her own means, necessary value and accounting adjustments related to the stock. Let us look at some to the mislaneous warehouse processes not covered earlier.
-
Warehouses may seem like a simple, straightforward concept, but they actually include a variety of different types of warehouses that all have their own niche. The type of warehousing that’s right for you depends on your specific industry, location, and needs. From private warehousing, distribution centers, and climate-controlled warehouses, there’s an option to suit every business.
-
What is a Warehouse & why companies need them?
All organizations hold stocks. In virtually every supply chain, gaps exist between when something is produced and when a customer is ready to buy or receive it. Stocks occur at any point in the supply chain where the flow of materials is interrupted. This implies that products need to be stored during this period of gap.
-
Warehouses can be places where piles of packed or loose products occupy space. If left disorganized, it will become very challenging to identify products for packing or picking. Hence, proper organization of warehouse is very important. Warehouse labeling systems eliminate this problem by making sure products are easily identified and managed during the warehousing and shipping process. Labeling is the most functional and cost-effective way to keep your warehouse organized and operating efficiently.
