Beryl Tomay on returns that protect margins
Speaker: Beryl Tomay, Vice President, Amazon Transportation
Who this is for: CX leads, ops managers, and brand owners focused on return rates, margin protection, and customer satisfaction
What Beryl unveiled
Beryl introduced a unified returns experience that brings tools, data, and insights into one place for both FBA and merchant fulfilled workflows. It surfaces product level drivers of returns, recommends fixes, and guides value recovery options such as FBA Grade and Resell. Then came three concrete features to prevent returns before they happen and cut costs when they do:
- Replacement parts for FBA sellers in the US. Instead of full returns for small missing or damaged components, you can ship the part directly. Early adopters reduced returns caused by missing or broken parts by over 70 percent.
2. Expanded product support via chat or phone. Connect customers to your trained agents for immediate help. Programs in flight prevented more than 60 percent of potential returns among customers who reached support.
3. Partial refunds without return for FBA sellers in the US. Resolve cosmetic defects or minor issues by offering a partial refund while the customer keeps the product. In Beryl’s example, a 20 dollar credit on a 200 dollar tent avoided a full return.
Beryl closed with scale signals. In 2025, sellers enrolled in product support avoided more than 4 million returns, protecting margins and reducing operational waste.
How this lands in real workflows
The new experience turns returns from a late stage cost center into an early stage decision. You can see patterns by ASIN, move fast on likely causes, and route each case to the cheapest successful outcome. Missing clip or hose. Ship a part, do not receive a full kit back. Customer stuck on setup. Start a chat and resolve in minutes. Bag scuffed or a light scratch on a non critical surface. Offer a small refund, keep the order intact, and protect lifetime value. Each path trims handling, freight, and refurb touches while preserving customer trust.
Moves you can put in place now
- Build a replacement parts catalog. Define eligible SKUs and parts, set pricing and inventory, and document pick and pack steps for FC or 3PL teams.
- Wire instant product support. Enable chat and phone, create tier one scripts with photos or short videos, and set clear pathways for escalate, part, or partial refund.
- Publish a partial refund matrix. Pre approve thresholds by category and ticket type so agents can grant credits quickly without supervisor loops.
- Standardize reason codes. Map return reasons to actions you prefer. Missing piece routes to parts. Confusion on use routes to support. Cosmetic only routes to partial refund.
- Enroll for value recovery. Push eligible items into Grade and Resell with simple grading rules. Track recovered value against write off alternatives.
Controls that avoid surprises
- Eligibility rules for parts. No safety critical substitutions. Require serial or batch checks when relevant.
- Fraud and abuse guardrails. Cap partial refunds per order and per customer over time. Random audit a sample of credits weekly.
- Quality loops. Feed part shipments and support transcripts into defect trending for packaging, instructions, and QC.
- Agent permissions. Role based limits for partial refunds and escalations with session level logging.
- SLA and CSAT tracking. Measure first contact resolution, time to resolve, and post interaction satisfaction by channel.
Signals that prove it works
- Return rate and avoidable return rate by ASIN
- Parts shipped count and resolution percentage without subsequent return
- Share of cases resolved via product support within the first contact
- Partial refund usage and net revenue retained per case
- A to Z claim rate and chargebacks tied to return handling
- Recovered value from Grade and Resell against historical write offs
Where ZonHack can help
We can stand up the parts catalog and SOPs, enable product support flows with ready scripts and media, and implement a partial refund matrix that balances CX with guardrails. On the analytics side, we build a returns dashboard that ties reason codes to outcomes so your team can see which interventions save the most cash and where packaging or instruction fixes cut returns at the source. If you prefer to run it in house, use the playbook above and we can audit the first cycles for accuracy.
The thread across sessions
Mary Beth lifted PDP quality. Jay showed creative that learns while you scale. Chris put an operator on your desk through Seller Assistant. Claire made compliance guidance practical. Keri added analytics that turn data into decisions. Nadya removed commingling costs and gave you one pool of inventory. Beryl closed the loop by unifying returns and preventing them before they start. The pattern is speed with control and fewer lost days between signal and action.Coming up next….
Jenna Owens
Selling Partner Support updates, routes to faster and higher quality help.
