The platform completes its first relaxation of the “refund only/refund without returning goods” policy
On March 16, Chinese Internet company Alibaba Group's source factory goods platform 1688 announced at the "Good Business Conference" held in Hangzhou that it will fully cancel the "refund without returning goods" policy starting from late March. Specifically, when dealing with transaction disputes over product quality issues, the platform will make judgments based on the account's integrity status. For those that meet the requirements, the platform will subsidize the buyers, and merchants do not need to bear relevant costs. After the subsidy is completed, goods do not need to be returned. Other refund applications will be handled by merchants independently.
As an e-commerce platform mainly targeting B-end merchants, improving the business environment was one of the key focuses for 1688 to attract merchants in the second half of 2024. In August 2024, when mentioning the operational pressure brought by the "refund without returning goods" policy and low-price competition to merchants, a person in charge of 1688 stated that the platform would advocate differentiated competition and fully consider the interests of merchants to formulate a refined and personalized "refund without returning goods" policy.
As of February 2025, the annual active buyer number (AAC) on the 1688 platform exceeded 100 million, hitting a new historical high for the 1688 platform.
Attitudes of various e-commerce platforms towards the "refund without returning goods" issue have collectively shifted, strengthening the protection of high-quality merchants to some extent and reducing proactive intervention in disputes over the "refund without returning goods" policy between consumers and high-quality merchants.
In July 2024, Taobao announced that it would optimize the "refund without returning goods" strategy. For merchants with a comprehensive store experience score of ≥4.8, the platform will not proactively intervene through Wangwang to support post-receipt "refund without returning goods" but will encourage merchants to negotiate with consumers first.
In October 2024, Taobao revealed that two months after the optimized "refund without returning goods" strategy was launched, the platform intercepted more than 400,000 unreasonable "refund without returning goods" cases per day on average.
In January 2025, Pinduoduo also announced five measures to optimize the "refund without returning goods" policy from the aspects of operation, merchants, and users. It will no longer proactively intervene in the "refund without returning goods" requests of high-quality merchants and simultaneously improve the internal labeling mechanism to stop providing after-sales support for "refund without returning goods" to malicious users through analysis and judgment.