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
-
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.
-
After products have been received and passed a quality inspection, they need to be stored so that you can find them when you need them. This process is called putaway. The spot where you store a particular product is called a location. One section of a warehouse might have small locations for light items; another area may have large locations on the floor for heavy items.
-
Before shipping, businesses need to make sure that the items will arrive in good condition. Packaging is a form of protection against environmental threats that the product will face from the time it leaves warehouse facility until the time it reached the customer. The packaging is intended to provide protection for the item as it is being handled in the warehouse or when the item is being shipped.
-
To stay competitive in today’s tough market, the location of your warehouse is vital. To grow retail business need to offer to customers faster and affordable shipping time, which is dependent on the warehousing location as the location of the warehouse affects the transit time to ship orders to customers.
-
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.
-
At a high level, the essential elements in a warehouse are an arrival bay, a storage area, a departure bay, a material handling system and an information management system. As part of the process for enabling a warehouse layout, you must define warehouse zone groups, and zones, location types, and locations.
-
Overview of Third-Party Logistics
Third-party logistics (abbreviated as 3PL, or TPL) is an organization's use of third-party businesses to outsource elements of its distribution, warehousing, and fulfillment services. A third-party logistics provider (3PL) is an asset-based or non-asset based company that manages one or more logistics processes or operations (typically, transportation or warehousing) for another company.
-
Overview of Warehouse Processes
The basic function of a warehouse is to store goods. This means that they receive deliveries from suppliers, do any necessary checking and sorting, store the materials until it is dispatched to customers. Traditionally warehouses were seen as places for the long-term storage of goods. Now organizations want to optimize their customer experience and try to move materials quickly through the supply chain, so the role of warehousing has changed.
