Notes for owners · Websites and conversion
How to cut e-commerce returns by fixing what the product page implies
Most avoidable returns start with a gap between what the product page implied and what arrived. Read the return reasons, find the gap and fix the page before you tighten the returns policy.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
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Another parcel back, and the reason box says "not as expected". To cut returns, find out what the buyer expected and why. Many avoidable returns come from a gap between what the page implied and what arrived. The colour looked brighter on screen. The size chart was copied from somewhere else. The spice box was photographed with steel katoris it does not come with. Fix the information and those returns lose their reason to happen. A harsher returns policy cuts returns mainly by cutting orders.
Read the returns before you touch the policy
Put every return from last season in one sheet. For each, note the product, the variant, the reason the buyer picked and, more useful, whatever they wrote or said. Marketplace reason menus are blunt: a buyer who picks "did not like it" may mean the fabric was see-through. If the free text is empty, call five of them and ask one question: what were you expecting?
Then sort the returns into two piles. In the first, the buyer received exactly what you sent, and it was not what they thought they were buying. That pile is the page's fault. In the second sit transit damage, the wrong item picked, and the buyer who ordered two sizes to keep one. Only the first pile is fixed on the product page.
Which gap caused it? A table to sort your returns
| What the buyer said | The gap | Fix on the page |
|---|---|---|
| "Colour is different" | Photo edited, or shot under warm studio light | One unedited daylight photo per colour, captioned as unedited |
| "Too small" or "too big" | A generic size chart, nothing on how it is cut | Measurements from your own piece laid flat, plus "relaxed" or "fitted" in words |
| "Smaller than I thought" | Nothing in the photo to judge size against | One photo in a hand or beside a familiar object, size in centimetres in the title |
| "Fabric is thin" or "see-through" | Fabric named but not described | Feel and weight in plain words, a photo held to the light, whether a lining is needed |
| "Not what was shown" | Props in the photo look included | A "what is in the box" line, with props named as not included |
| "Quality not good" on handmade goods | Natural variation not explained | A line on what varies from piece to piece, and a close-up of the finish |
| "Does not fit my bed, shelf or phone" | Dimensions or compatibility buried in the description | Fit details at the top of the page, with a "check before you buy" line |
Use it as a register. Add a column for how many returns landed in each row this season and fix the biggest row first. If one or two rows carry most of the count, that is where the work is.
Size and colour have their own fixes
If the biggest row is size, measure finished pieces from the batch you ship, never a big brand's chart; size charts that cut clothing returns goes garment by garment. If it is colour or scale, the photographs need redoing, and showing home decor in a room has the shot list.
What is in the box, and what is only in the photo
The "not what was shown" row is the cheapest to fix. A product photographed in use carries things that are not for sale: the bowls in a spice box, the cushions on a bench, the plant in a planter. A buyer reads the photo as the product. Then the parcel arrives with less in it than the picture.
Add one line high on the page: "In the box: one wooden spice box with lid. Bowls and spoon in the photo are not included." If buyers keep asking for the props, that is your next listing.
For example: a sheesham spice box from Saharanpur
For example, take an invented Saharanpur workshop that carves sheesham spice boxes, tea trays and wall shelves, selling on its own site and one marketplace. The figures are made up.
Of about 200 round spice boxes sold in a quarter, 34 came back. Buyers tagged them "not as shown" and "smaller than expected". The owner's first move was to charge for return pickup on the website. First-time orders on the site fell by a fifth, and marketplace returns, which the workshop did not control, carried on exactly as before.
The free text told a different story. The main photo showed the box open, with seven steel katoris full of turmeric, chilli and mustard seed, and a small spoon on the lid. The katoris were props. Buyers who ordered a masala dabba expected the bowls, because the dabba in their mother's kitchen had them. And with nothing in the frame to judge size against, a box made for small katoris looked big enough for a family's daily cooking.
So free pickup went back on. The main photo now shows the box empty and held in two hands. The title carries the outside size in centimetres, and the "in the box" line names what is and is not included. A second listing sells the box with steel katoris, because the returns had said plainly what buyers wanted. Returns did not vanish: returns on the box dropped to 21, and the rest were buyers who still wanted the bowls. The register is the judge now.
Returns the page cannot fix
Some returns have nothing to do with the page. Breakage is packaging. The wrong item or the wrong size sent is your packing table. A second person checking the SKU against the order slip costs less than a reverse pickup. Parcels refused on cash on delivery need a different fix: confirming COD orders on WhatsApp before you ship.
A few buyers do use and return. Handle those orders one by one through the marketplace's own process. On your own site, decline repeat cases under your published returns policy, and have your adviser check its wording, because consumer rules decide what a policy may refuse. That beats punishing every buyer with a stricter policy.
Skip the reshoot if your register shows the problem is mostly size, and skip the size work if it is mostly colour.
What to do next
Put last season's returns into the table above and count the rows. The biggest row is your first fix, and it is a page edit, not a policy change. What buyers in each product category check before ordering is covered in the e-commerce sales and marketing section, and conversion rate optimisation is the service that works on the page itself. To have the returns read against your listings, tell us what you need.
