Amazon FBA repackaging service can no longer be disabled

Amazon has made its Amazon Fulfilment by Amazon (FbA) Repackaging service, which used to be an option, mandatory, reports Tambay. The service is designed by Amazon to take care of unsellable customer returns. In the service, these products are refurbished to saleable condition. The new refurbishment settings state that FbA repackages your eligible customer returns so they can be sold as new. 

As e-commerce returns are very hard to avoid completely, one of the best ways to deal with these is to refurbish products which are unused to as new condition by replacing packaging. That is why this might be an option for Amazon to reduce the sale of distressed goods through Amazon Warehouse. Particularly in the apparel market, where customers typically wear an item once and then return, that is a problem. This might impact sellers if they get complaints that items are used when they supplied them to Amazon and they were sold, returned, repacked and sold again. It is hard to keep track of which of their items have been returned and resold. Amazon seems to create new product pages with a different ASIN to keep track of the refurbished products themselves.