A lot of brands focus on making their order processing faster and more tech-driven, and that’s great. But what often gets ignored is return reconciliation, and that’s where money quietly slips away. You might feel confident after a strong sales month, but returns can eat into your profits without you even realizing it. In 2024, the average ecommerce return rate was 16.9%, and it’s even higher in categories like fashion, lifestyle, and beauty. Returns can impact your profitability in two ways- • You lose money on forward and reverse logistics • You suffer from poor recovery when returned items arrive damaged, expired, or missing Now multiply that by hundreds or thousands of returns every month, and it’s easy to see how broken reconciliation workflows quietly drain your revenue.
What Happens When Returns Are Not Reconciled Properly? Key Challenges for Ecommerce Brands
Returns aren’t just a backend task; when they’re not tracked or reconciled properly, they create chaos across your entire business. From warehouse confusion to finance shortfalls, they disrupt workflows, delay decisions, and drain team bandwidth across departments. Here’s how the mess trickles down across teams:
Finance Heads: Blind Spots Lead to Margin Leakages
“We file claims worth ₹8 lakhs every month, but only ₹5–6 lakhs actually get reimbursed. Where’s the gap? We have no visibility into which claims were rejected, when it happened, or why. Without clear data, we’re left guessing, and our margins quietly leak through the cracks.” When return reconciliation isn’t done right, the finance team is left dealing with untracked claims, missed reimbursements, and slowly shrinking margins.
Ops Managers: Mismatched Returns, Missed Claims, Manual Chaos
“Flipkart says the item was returned. The warehouse team insists it never came back. Who’s right? I don’t know, and I have 20 more of these cases to sort out today. It’s a daily tug-of-war, and there’s no system to verify what’s true.” Without a proper return tracking system, the ops team gets buried in packet-level coordination, mismatches, and chasing claim deadlines every day.
Category Managers: Guessing Return Reasons, Missing Improvements
“I see a spike in returns this month, but I don’t know why. Was it sizing issues? Product quality? Or something else? Without proper return reason codes or images, I’m completely in the dark. I can’t identify patterns, improve listings, or even dispute fake claims; we’re just guessing.” With a lack of proper visibility, category managers get stuck with balancing SLAs for each platform, keeping margins in check, and figuring out the reasons for return.
Founder: Lack Scalable Solution & Margin Tracking
“We’ve scaled to over 1,000 orders a day, that’s great progress. But returns? That’s a black hole. No one’s tracking them closely, and we’re silently bleeding money. With no visibility or system in place, returns are eating into our margins without showing up on any dashboard.” Brand founders want control, but through a scalable solution that keeps up as order volumes grow, and a dedicated dashboard especially for them to track profit, margins, money lost, and more. Return challenges not only vary at the role level but also depend on the type of returns. Let’s see what kinds of challenges it can bring up and how the reconciliation process differs for each of them.
Understanding Return Types and Their Reconciliation Workflows
Customer Initiated Returns (CIR)
CIRs occur when a customer accepts the delivery but later decides to return the product, due to reasons like size issues, dissatisfaction, or product mismatch. These returns often involve complex claims, such as disputes over return conditions, damage, or wrong items. They are also SPF (Seller Protection Fund) sensitive, meaning brands need to file claims with strong proofs (images, condition checks, etc.) within strict timelines.
Reconciliation Workflow
• Detailed validation • Require condition-based classification • Strict tracking of SPF claim windows
Return to Origin (RTO)
RTOs happen when a product is not delivered to the customer and is returned by the courier. This includes scenarios like customer unavailability, address issues, or refusal to accept delivery. Even though the order wasn’t completed, return logistics are still billed.
Reconciliation Workflow
• RTOs don’t require condition checks • Focus is on recovering logistics costs and validating non-delivery reasons. • minimize losses from undelivered but still chargeable shipments. CIR and RTO returns differ in their causes, cost implications, claim processes, and documentation requirements. That’s why each return type needs a tailored reconciliation workflow to accurately track, validate, and recover associated losses.
Common Return Reconciliation Issues on Amazon, Flipkart, and Other Marketplaces
Slow Returns: Aging Inventory, Missed Claims, No Control
Sometimes returns take 3–6 months to reach the seller. By then, the product is often expired or unsellable, and the claim window could be closed. As different marketplaces have different claim windows, like Amazon allows 90 days (self-service), while Flipkart offers only 14 days after the returned product is received, chasing all of them due to delayed returns becomes really hectic. Since the seller never gets the item in time, they can’t file a claim, no AWB, no proof. This leads to a double loss; their inventory is blocked, and there is no scope for a refund recovery.
Missing Returns Go Untracked Due to Visibility Gaps
Several brands often lack real-time visibility into “don’t expect” or lost returns because marketplaces typically don’t include this information in their payment or reconciliation sheets. If this data were available, many issues could be resolved proactively, as sellers would know where their return is stuck. Sellers miss return packets, fail to claim refunds, and also face inventory mismatches.
Return Status Mismatch: Marked Delivered, But Never Received
Brands often see returns marked as “delivered” on the marketplace panel, but their warehouse never actually receives the product. There’s no physical proof, no inward entry, and no way to verify. Still, the system treats it as closed. This mismatch leads to disputes that sellers can’t resolve, and the product simply disappears from inventory records, neither claimable nor resellable.
Damaged or Wrong Product Returned, but System Marks It ‘Successful’
Ops teams often receive returns that are empty, damaged, or not the original item—but the system still shows them as successfully closed. With no structured way to flag such discrepancies, these faulty returns sit as dead stock, and claims can’t be raised. Meanwhile, reconciliation moves forward as if nothing went wrong, leaving teams to absorb the loss.
No Visibility Into Why Returns Happen: Teams Left Guessing
Category and operations managers looking to reduce return rates often hit a dead end due to a lack of granular details. They are left guessing whether the return was due to size, color, any other issue or it was a fraud. Without these insights, it’s hard to identify patterns or take corrective action, and the cycle of avoidable returns continues.
Collecting SPF Proofs Is a Manual Headache for Teams
To defend an SPF claim, teams have to manually gather multiple proofs, like AWB numbers, product images, and invoices. Each piece of data sits in a different system or folder, and there’s no central place to access everything. In the rush to meet tight claim deadlines, teams often scramble and waste hours just to compile the required documents, making the entire process frustrating and error-prone.
Why Most Brands Face Return Reconciliation Challenges
A return doesn’t just mean the product comes back; it can cost brands anywhere from 20% to 65% of the product’s original cost. And that’s where the real problem lies: returns silently eat away at a brand’s margins, order after order. But the bigger question is, what are most brands missing that makes return reconciliation such a costly affair?
Flying Blind Without Centralized Return Reconciliation Across Channels
Return workflows differ across platforms; for instance, Amazon’s seller returns process operates very differently compared to Flipkart, Ajio, or Myntra. Without a centralized system in place, brands are forced to manually switch between platforms, track each return separately, and reconcile scattered data.
Heavy Manual workload to match returns and claims
Teams spend hours reconciling return data with claim records. This manual effort leads to delays, errors, and resource fatigue.
Lack of ownership visibility
Without centralized accountability, teams work in silos, duplicating efforts, finance, ops, and category teams all chasing different threads. This leads to confusion, blame games, and unresolved issues.
No Visibility into Return reasons to reduce fraud or bad listings
Brands can’t identify patterns in why products are returned. This limits their ability to act on fraudulent behavior or poor catalog content.
No Flags for Aging or Orphaned Returns
Returns that don’t get processed on time go unnoticed. This increases loss risk and hurts customer experience and SLA compliance.
Manual Matching of Return Packets and Claims
Each packet and claim must be verified individually, wasting time. This slows down financial reconciliation and hampers accuracy.
No Tracking of SPF proofs or Claim Status in One Place
SPF documentation is scattered across emails and sheets. Teams struggle to track which claims are approved, rejected, or pending.
No automated alerts for missed returns, mismatches, or claim deadlines
Deadlines are missed simply because no one was notified. This results in claim rejections, revenue loss, and operational bottlenecks. So what’s the fix for all this operational chaos? Unireco brings it all together. Let’s explore how it solves every layer of the return reconciliation problem.
Unireco: End-to-End Visibility to Track, Simplify, and Reconcile Every Return
“Catch issues before margins slip, Unireco gives sellers a real-time view of returns, damage status, reasons, and claim deadlines”. Unicommerce, an e-commerce enablement SaaS solution, has introduced Unireco, a one-stop solution to resolve all kinds of return reconciliation issues. It brings structure, speed, and clarity to a process that’s usually messy and manual. With built-in compatibility across marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, and Meesho, and features tailored for different return types (CIR and RTO), Unireco ensures no claim, packet, or rupee slips through the cracks. Let’s see how it cuts through the chaos and makes life easier for every stakeholder involved.
For Finance Heads:
Finance heads can be relieved of the burden of digging through spreadsheets and emails because Unireco automatches the return packets to corresponding claims. It also offers a dedicated ledger to track reimbursements and SPF (Seller Protection Fund) claims, giving finance teams a single source of truth for all pending, approved, and credited amounts. On top of that, Unireco sends automated alerts for missed or upcoming claim windows, helping brands avoid revenue loss due to timing errors or untracked disputes. The finance department can also map the correct financial accounting by differentiating between return and exchange. This helps them better understand the profitability per transaction.
Key Benefits
- Boost profitability by reducing losses from missed or mishandled returns
- Recover margins by catching claim windows before they close
- Unblock payments by identifying and resolving mismatches on time
- Auto-match return packets to claims
- Ledger for reimbursements and SPF tracking
- Get alerts for missed claim windows
For Ops Managers
Ops managers get the clear real-time visibility in tracking the return flow of both types of returns, RTO, & CIR. Its return aging tracker identifies the items that need prior attention so that timely action can be taken before the claim window closes. Orphaned, mismatched, and lost packets are automatically flagged by the system, giving the team that extra layer of visibility to catch issues that might otherwise slip through the cracks. As these orphaned items get mapped, it ensures no inventory is left behind during reconciliation which otherwise would have laid unclaimed or unaccounted for stock.
Key Benefits
- Save time by tracking returns in realtime
- Reduce manual efforts by automating and smart flags
- Easier return handling via clear visibility
For Category Managers
Unireco brings clarity to return reconciliation for category managers by offering deep, actionable insights at every level. It provides return reason-level data segmented by platform, product, and SKU, for example, category teams can now clearly see if a product was returned due to size issues, quality complaints, or image-to-product disparity. With this visibility, managers can take targeted action like updating product descriptions, correcting catalog images, or flagging quality concerns, to reduce future returns. Combined with mismatch reports, Unireco also helps trace defective products, making return management proactive instead of reactive.
Key Benefits
- Profitability breakdown at SKU Level, COGS, CM1, CM2 ( help identify low-performing SKUs)
- Easily trace fraudulent returns and defective products
For Founders
Unireco is built to scale with your brand, whether you’re selling on two marketplaces or ten. As your business grows, you’ll never have to worry about manual reconciliation, scattered claims, or managing return data across platforms. Everything runs through a unified system that works seamlessly across Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, and more, without the need for spreadsheets or constant follow-ups. Founders get a single dashboard showing exactly how much money is lost, recovered, or at risk, giving you the confidence to make fast, informed decisions and protect your margins at every stage of growth.
Key Benefits
- Track Profitability, revenue leakages with the clear, real-time return tracking
- Role-based dashboards- for founders, they can see where the money is stuck
Unireco Is Compatible with Pre-Built Workflows Across Leading Marketplaces
- Myntra: PPMP, SJIT
- Flipkart: Dropship, FBF
- Amazon: Easyship, Seller Flex, FBA
- Meesho: Cash-heavy, cancellation-prone flows
Recover What’s Yours With Unireco on Your Side
Returns are inevitable, especially if you’re in categories like fashion, lifestyle, or electronics, where return rates are naturally high due to size issues, buyer’s remorse, or product expectations. But while returns can’t be avoided, margin losses from poor tracking, missed claim windows, and manual reconciliation absolutely can. Unireco helps you track, validate, and reconcile every return before it turns into a loss. With complete visibility, automated checks, and marketplace-ready workflows, you’re not just managing returns, you’re recovering revenue, protecting margins, and scaling confidently. Don’t just absorb return losses, recover what’s yours. Book a Demo Now!
FAQs
1. What is return reconciliation in eCommerce, and why is it important?
Return reconciliation is the process of tracking, validating, and matching return orders with corresponding refunds, claims, or inventory updates. It ensures that sellers recover what’s owed to them from platforms like Amazon or Flipkart, whether it’s a product, refund, or reimbursement. Without proper reconciliation, brands face revenue leakage through missed claims, inventory mismatches, and unresolved disputes.
2. How can I track return orders on Amazon, Flipkart, and Meesho?
To track return orders across marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, and Meesho, sellers need a centralized return management system. These platforms have different return policies and claim timelines, making manual tracking unreliable. A solution like Unireco provides real-time visibility into the status of every return, flags delays or discrepancies, and helps you act before claim windows close.
3. Why are my SPF claims getting rejected on Amazon?
SPF claims on Amazon often get rejected due to missing documentation, late submissions, or incorrect claim filing. Amazon requires specific proofs, like AWB numbers, return condition images, and timely filing within the claim window. Without a structured tracking system, it’s easy to miss key steps. Using a platform like Unireco helps auto-capture and organize SPF proofs so you can file accurately and on time.
4. What’s the difference between CIR and RTO returns, and how do I handle them?
CIR (Customer-Initiated Returns) are returns requested by the customer after delivery, often due to size, quality, or satisfaction issues. These require condition checks and are usually tied to SPF claims. RTO (Return to Origin) occurs when the item is not delivered and is returned by the courier. These don’t require condition checks but do involve reverse logistics charges. Each type needs a tailored reconciliation workflow. Tools like Unireco help automate both processes separately to reduce errors and revenue loss.
5. How do I automate return reconciliation for my eCommerce business?
To automate return reconciliation, you need a system that integrates with all your sales channels, tracks packet-level return data, matches it with claims or reimbursements, and alerts you to any delays or mismatches. Unireco does this by automatching returns to claims, flagging discrepancies, and sending alerts for claim deadlines—eliminating manual work and helping teams recover margins faster.
6. What’s the best software to manage return claims and inventory mismatches?
The best software for managing return claims and inventory mismatches is one that offers end-to-end visibility, works across multiple marketplaces, and reduces manual effort. Unireco is built specifically for marketplace sellers and solves challenges like missed SPF claims, unaccounted returns, orphaned inventory, and financial mismatches, making it a complete return reconciliation solution.