Easily track reimbursement
Designing Amazon's first seller reimbursement portal
ROLE
UX Designer
COMPANY
Amazon
DURATION
May - Dec 2022
Sellers around the world ship their inventory to Amazon warehouses. Once the products reach the fulfilment centres, they are organized into suitable storage areas and prepared for delivery to customers’ doorsteps. However, the process doesn’t end there; a complex system handles returns when products fail to meet customer expectations. At each stage of this journey, there’s a risk of products getting lost or damaged, which could lead to financial losses.
Sellers can only gather reimbursement information by compiling three different reports, which is tedious and confusing.
Amazon offers automatic reimbursements for majority of the lost and damaged inventory. However, there are still cases where sellers need to provide additional documentations for reimbursement. Sellers currently lack an easy way to track what has been automatically reimbursed and if there are additional reimbursement opportunities they might be missing. Currently, the only method for sellers to access this information is by compiling three different reports and identify what has been ere which can be tedious and confusing. Many sellers contact customer support for help, often inquiring about damages that Amazon has already automatically resolved. This lengthy and complex process not only pushes sellers toward costly third-party services but also increases the number of inquiries to Amazon.
My role
I designed Amazon's first seller reimbursement portal that consolidates defects, resolutions, and reimbursement status into a single transparent view. Sellers can now challenge resolutions, understand the reasoning behind decisions, and identify missed opportunities—without manual report compilation.
As the lead designer for this project, I worked closely with the product manager and engineers to bring it to life.
​To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information in this case study. All information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of Amazon.
Using exploratory research to determine what to focus on
I worked with the product manager to define the requirements. We had to figure out where do seller’s struggle most to know what to address first.
I conducted exploratory research to understand where and how sellers struggle the most in the reimbursement process that would guide our design direction.
After interviewing sellers, I mapped out the seller journey, which helps us pinpoint areas to focus on.
User testing helps resolve design deadlock quickly in time-sensitive projects.
This project faced a tight deadline, and with many perspectives and differing opinions, we experienced a lot of back-and-forth during iterations, which threatened our timeline. To speed up progress, I developed prototypes and organised a usability study with five participants using our initial designs. This approach enabled us to gather valuable seller feedback early and refine the design more effectively.
Key design decision in this iteration
Overview page without delving into Amazon’s complex reports: From the seller interviews I've conducted, it's clear that enhancing transparency and minimising the time sellers spend on research are crucial design priorities. The graph in the overview section empowers sellers by providing a comprehensive view of their entire inventory, allowing them to gain insights without the need for extensive research or the tedious auditing of multiple reports that can take hours.
Providing clear insights on outstanding action to drive progress: Sellers previously spent hours raising cases and communicating with associates to determine the necessary evidence when disputing Amazon’s decisions. This often led to lost reimbursable opportunities due to a lack of visibility of such instances. The “need documentation” tab will provide clarity to sellers on instances where Amazon is waiting for additional documents from them to reach
a fair resolution.
A list of claims under investigation that are nearing resolution: This page will reduce the need for individual case follow-ups and help track their progress more efficiently. lack of visibility of such instances. The “need documentation” tab will provide clarity to sellers on instances where Amazon is waiting for additional documents from them to reach a fair resolution.
Clarifying what has been reimbursed, what hasn't, and the reasons behind it: Keeping a thorough record of reimbursements is crucial, as it serves as the primary function of the portal. During seller interviews, a new insight emerged: sellers often created cases only to find out later that those defects had already been reimbursed. This aligns with our internal data on case creation. By enhancing visibility, we can reduce the unnecessary generation of cases for reimbursements that have already been processed.
We found many interesting insights during this study that helps us refine the design
Sellers investigate reimbursable opportunities at every steps of supply chain: Sellers naturally think about their business in terms of supply chain phases (e.g shipping, Processing at the Amazon warehouse, Delivery, return). As organising by phases makes it easier to take corrective actions when needed.
Seller are constantly looking to learn , how can they reduce the defects from their side: We observed sellers want to know the type of defects that is frequently happening to their inventory, and is there anything they can do to make it better.
Sellers are often anxious about when their pending claims going to be closed: The reimbursement amount directly impacts sellers profitability. Not having certainty on when their claim will reach resolution create anxiety for sellers.
Sellers are often interested to investigate the defects related to a specific SKU: As understanding the reimbursement status of specific SKUs helps sellers manage their inventory more effectively. If a particular SKU consistently has reimbursement issues, it may indicate a problem with that specific product. They can make informed decision whether to restock or discontinue it based on which SKU is facing frequent damages, shipping issues and return rates.
Sellers want to know about per unit reimbursement: Per units reimbursement and breakdown will help seller to monitor reimbursement amounts closely, comparing expected versus actual payments after FBA fee deductions. When they notice significant discrepancies such as receiving only $2 for $10, that is when they will appeal.
Changes we made based on above insights
Sellers shared their positive feedback on the overview page.
Compromises
I identified some future considerations that weren't prioritized. I developed a revised version of the overview page to display the % of total inventory affected by defects year over year, along with the top three SKUs that have the most defects. Additionally, I created a data visualisation to illustrate which phase of the sellers' supply chain is most impacted by defects and the types of defects occurring. These insights would have enabled sellers to better understand defect trends in detail, identify the months when spikes occur, and take proactive measures to reduce defects and enhance their operations. Unfortunately, this had to be deprioritised for phase II due to limited resources.
The big launch and impact
After 1 year of teamwork, we successfully launched this platform globally in 2024. Within just six months, we observed a significant reduction in reimbursement-related inquiries, particularly from sellers who previously raised cases to check the status of lost inventory. Additionally, we noted an increase in repeat visitors and growing interest from the seller community regarding this portal. While our efforts in the defect reimbursement area are far from over, I must say this was a promising start.