How returns change your forecast

Your forecast is built from what you sold, and a return doesn't take anything off it. What Skuvelo suggests you buy accounts for a returned item only when it is back in sellable stock. Then it is included once, as stock on hand, like any other unit on the shelf.

When a returned item becomes sellable stock

• Your sales channel handles the return (a marketplace's own warehouse, or a 3PL). The channel inspects the item and decides whether it can be sold again, so the returns report alone doesn't put it back on hand. Once the channel says it is sellable, adjust that location to match the channel's figure (see "Counting and adjusting inventory"), and the buy plan follows. Skuvelo uses the return itself for return rates and to match the refund to the sale.
• You handle the return yourself. A returned item waits as Awaiting return decision until someone decides what happens to it. While it waits, it can't be sold and planning leaves it out. Choose "back to stock" or "open box" and it becomes sellable stock. Repair and refurbish keep it unsellable until the work is done. Return to supplier, damaged and written off mean it never comes back into sellable stock.
• You restock it as you refund on Shopify. Skuvelo adds it straight back as sellable stock, once. If you also record a return for the same item in Skuvelo, it is still added only once.

Items that come back and are thrown away don't lower your next buy. You still need to replace the ones you sold.

What Skuvelo doesn't do

Skuvelo doesn't guess how many future sales will come back. An item that is often returned and put back on the shelf may be bought slightly early. The plan corrects itself as the returned items reach sellable stock.

High return rate

An item returned more than 10% of the time (by default) shows High return rate on its buy-plan row and on draft purchase orders, along with the most common reason. This needs at least 30 units sold in the last 90 days. The flag links to the Returns report on Reports, which shows the rate, the reasons and what returns cost you.