According to the Financial Network|New Consumer Daily on November 29 (Researcher Liang Youyun), Kuaishou E-commerce officially released a new adjustment recently, and the platform will terminate the service of "Kuaishou Shop refund without return" for merchants starting December 2. Merchants can proactively terminate the contract before December 2, and those who do not will have their contracts automatically terminated upon expiration. For stock orders in recent times, the Kuaishou E-commerce system will still execute according to the original configuration.

The reasons for Kuaishou E-commerce's strategy adjustment were not specifically stated, only revealing in the announcement that it was "due to business content adjustments, based on comprehensive platform considerations." Additionally, after terminating the "refund without return" service, Kuaishou E-commerce stated that it will also launch better service products for everyone to use.

Regarding the above news, sources close to Kuaishou E-commerce analyzed that the existing after-sales services cover various scenarios such as "broken return" and "refund without return," allowing those who meet the relevant after-sales criteria to directly enjoy the corresponding services. This adjustment is likely a cleanup and change of old product labels and related services under the already covered scenarios. The "refund without return" referred to by Kuaishou differs from the public's understanding of "refund only," which generally means that consumers can receive a refund without returning the goods under specific conditions.

Currently, Kuaishou E-commerce's "refund only" service has not been canceled; only the service label named "refund without return" has been taken down.

In the announcement released recently, the "refund without return service" was first introduced by Kuaishou on November 23, 2021. It applies to commodities published in Kuaishou Shop that come with the "refund without return" service guarantee. After merchants join this service, buyers purchasing commodities marked with the "refund without return service" can apply for a refund without return within 7 days after signing for the item, provided they meet certain designated conditions.

The New Consumer Daily noted while checking Kuaishou E-commerce's existing "Kuaishou After-Sales Service Management Rules" that several rules regarding the after-sales processing workflow still support platform consumers' applications for "refund only," but the platform has set certain conditions for triggering this clause and it only applies to specific transaction scenarios.

Kuaishou E-commerce's after-sales rules show that the conditions for triggering the platform's "refund only" mainly depend on whether merchants adhere to normal trading rules and whether merchants voluntarily agree.

The regulation states that when a merchant has not shipped the goods and does not process a refund request within 24 hours, the platform will default to allowing the consumer to receive a refund; if the merchant has already shipped the goods but does not process the refund request within a long time (36 hours), the platform will also allow a refund.

Under this regulation, whether a merchant is proactive in after-sales service and actively agrees to refunds has become key, significantly avoiding losses from malicious exploitation.

It is important to point out that Kuaishou's 'refund only' is not entirely led by merchants; this clause still serves to protect consumer rights.

Another regulation shows that in 'extreme' circumstances, if a merchant violates buyer rights and is negligent in handling or not cooperating in processing buyer after-sales requests, or generates a large number of customer complaints, the buyer's after-sales request will be automatically approved and refunded. Simultaneously, for such poorly operated merchants, Kuaishou will directly take over the after-sales process and act on behalf of consumers to initiate refunds, returns, and reimbursement of shipping costs, with all expenses borne by the merchants.

Since the beginning of this year, the 'refund only' after-sales service standard has sparked heated discussions.

The initial intention of e-commerce platforms to launch 'refund only' services is to protect consumer rights. However, it has also caused conflicts between merchants and consumers, with reports of merchants suing and condemning consumers who maliciously exploit the system.

Under public opinion and pressure from both parties in the trade, e-commerce platforms are also adjusting and improving the detailed rules of the 'refund only' service.

In August of this year, pdd holdings adjusted the upper limit of the order refund amount and analyzed the after-sales records of consumers and the after-sales complaints of merchants, continuously improving the internal marking mechanism against malicious users and stopping after-sales support for malicious users' refund requests.

At the same time, for abnormal "refund only" orders, if the merchant's appeal is successful, the platform will compensate for the related orders. However, for products with only minor issues, such as slight surface scratches or damages to the packaging, the platform will determine that a full refund is not supported.

How to continuously adjust after-sales strategy while also meeting the needs of both buyers and sellers has become a long-term issue that e-commerce platforms must balance.