(Yicai) Aug. 29 -- Chinese merchants on Amazon had mixed reactions when the US e-commerce platform launched a new returnless refund policy to follow Chinese peers Pinduoduo and Taobao.

With the new policy, merchants can save disposal fees when the goods cannot be resold due to quality issues, said Bao Haojing, general manager at Chinese information technology firm Yuanqi Shizu. Moreover, Amazon will not charge refund commissions to merchants, meaning that shops would only lose faulty goods and logistics fees, which will help them control their return rate, Bao added.

On Aug. 13, Amazon announced the launch of its Fulfillment by Amazon Returnless Resolutions program, which allows merchants to use Amazon's FBA service to offer refunds or replacements of goods under USD75 without requiring customers to return the product. Sellers can apply to join the program, which is optional.

"Returned goods are impossible to resell and involve disposal and warehouse fees, as well as higher return rate for the shop," a clothing seller who signed up for FBA Returnless Resolutions said. "But the benefits of refunds without returning the merchandise depend on the situation."

Some merchants are worried about customers' abuse of the new service.

For this issue, Amazon should make sure that the rights and interests of both customers and merchants are balanced by carrying out big data-based feedback analysis and related adjustments, Chen Qi, chief researcher at Chinese think tank Bense, told Yicai.

This year, Amazon has introduced several measures to tackle the competition from Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms, such as Temu and Shein. It also unveiled plans to launch discount stores and lower commissions.

"Measures introduced by Amazon this year haven't shown effects yet," Chen noted. "However, lowering commissions would be a concrete benefit for sellers." 

Editors: Zhang Yushuo, Futura Costaglione