After a massive public backlash following leaked footage on ITV News that showed Amazon destroying thousands of returned and unsold goods in a warehouse near Glasgow, the company has now announced programmes to cut some its waste.
In a blog post, the Jeff Bezos-founded pioneering e-commerce company said it has two new Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) solutions to resell customer returns and overstock items to give them a second life.
These programmes are part of Amazon’s commitment to both sellers and sustainability.
Libby Johnson McKee, director, Amazon WW Returns, ReCommerce and Sustainability, said: “Customer returns are a fact of life for all retailers, and what to do with those products is an industry-wide challenge.
“These new programmes are examples of the steps we’re taking to ensure that products sold on Amazon – whether by us or our small business partners – go to good use and don’t become waste. Along with existing programmes like FBA Donations, we hope these help build a circular economy and reduce our impact on the planet. And we’re excited that these programmes will also help the businesses selling on Amazon reduce costs and grow their businesses—it’s a win for our partners, customers, and communities.”
The first solution is the ‘FBA Grade and Resell’. Selling partners who want to resell returned items can take advantage of this programme (available in the UK, to be introduced in the US by end of year, and in Germany, France, Italy and Spain by early 2022) which gives third party selling partners the option to sell returned products on Amazon as “used” items.
When an item is returned, sellers can choose to automatically route it to this new programme. Amazon will then evaluate the item and assign it one of four standard conditions: Used – Like New; Used – Very Good; Used – Good and Used – Acceptable. Sellers then set the price for items based on the condition and manage pricing, advertising, and sales using their existing processes, just as they do for their new items.
The other programme is ‘FBA Liquidations’, which gives sellers the option to use the company’s wholesale resale channel and technology to provide sellers with a way to recover a portion of their inventory cost from their returned or overstock inventory. The programme is live in the U.S., Germany, France, Italy and Spain, and is set to go live in the UK in August.
Previously, a seller would either need to have returned or overstock inventory sent back to them or let Amazon take care of this product through its FBA Donations programme. Now businesses selling on Amazon have a new hassle-free way to recover value on these items by reselling these items through Amazon’s bulk resale partners.
In 2019, Amazon launched the Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) Donations programme to help bring even more items to those in need. FBA Donations is an easy, automatic way for sellers using FBA to donate their overstock or returned items. The entire FBA Donations process is “hands off” for sellers – from coordination to delivery – because Amazon uses its own supply chain and operational expertise so that the right items get to the right charity partners.
Amazon reiterated its committed to minimising waste and helping its customers to reuse, repair, and recycle their used products, as well as reducing packaging waste and using less packaging material.
