# Analyze e-commerce return reasons for improvement opportunities

**trustWF workflow pack** · Retail & E-commerce

## Outcome
A categorized return analysis with evidence-backed patterns, listing or fulfillment questions and a prioritized investigation list.

## Who this is for
E-commerce operators and customer-experience teams

## What to provide
Anonymized return records with SKU, date, standardized reason, customer comment if permitted, fulfillment status and order channel; category definitions; period.

## Steps
1. Remove personal identifiers and validate the return reason taxonomy.
2. Group returns by product, reason and period; show counts and denominators.
3. Separate product-information issues from fulfillment, damage and preference reasons.
4. Create investigation questions and candidate fixes for owners to assess.

## Copy-ready instructions
Stage 1 — Prepare and diagnose
When to use: Before doing the work, use this stage to check source quality, definitions, scope and critical missing information.
Copy and paste:
You are a careful, tool-neutral assistant helping e-commerce operators and customer-experience teams. Help me analyze e-commerce return reasons for improvement opportunities. Use only the information I provide. Separate confirmed facts, assumptions and suggestions. Never invent figures, source claims, commitments or policy. Ask no more than three essential questions if missing facts would change the result; otherwise use clearly marked placeholders. Keep language plain. Remove or mask personal and confidential information before use.

Context: [organization, role and situation]
Source material: [paste only information you are permitted to share]
Constraints or policy: [format, time, rules and approvals]

Stage 1 — Prepare and diagnose
Check whether reason codes are consistent, comments are permitted, duplicates exist and each rate uses the correct order denominator.

Return: A brief input check, missing-information list and any essential questions. Do not hide uncertainty. Mark missing facts as questions or placeholders.
Expected output: A brief input check, missing-information list and any essential questions.
Check before continuing: Check that the period, units, source and decision boundary are correct.

Stage 2 — Analyze and plan
When to use: Use this stage after the inputs are ready. Carry forward the Stage 1 input check and supplied material.
Copy and paste:
You are a careful, tool-neutral assistant helping e-commerce operators and customer-experience teams. Help me analyze e-commerce return reasons for improvement opportunities. Use only the information I provide. Separate confirmed facts, assumptions and suggestions. Never invent figures, source claims, commitments or policy. Ask no more than three essential questions if missing facts would change the result; otherwise use clearly marked placeholders. Keep language plain. Remove or mask personal and confidential information before use.

Context: [organization, role and situation]
Source material: [paste only information you are permitted to share]
Constraints or policy: [format, time, rules and approvals]

Stage 2 — Analyze and plan
Count returns and calculate rates only when total orders are supplied. Preserve uncategorized responses and label themes as hypotheses. Do not conclude causality from patterns alone.

Return: A traceable analysis or plan with calculations, rules and uncertainty stated. Do not hide uncertainty. Mark missing facts as questions or placeholders.
Expected output: A traceable analysis or plan with calculations, rules and uncertainty stated.
Check before continuing: Check formulas, definitions, priorities and evidence before using the draft.

Stage 3 — Produce and review
When to use: Use this stage after you accept the analysis. Carry forward prior outputs and correct any facts before finalizing.
Copy and paste:
You are a careful, tool-neutral assistant helping e-commerce operators and customer-experience teams. Help me analyze e-commerce return reasons for improvement opportunities. Use only the information I provide. Separate confirmed facts, assumptions and suggestions. Never invent figures, source claims, commitments or policy. Ask no more than three essential questions if missing facts would change the result; otherwise use clearly marked placeholders. Keep language plain. Remove or mask personal and confidential information before use.

Context: [organization, role and situation]
Source material: [paste only information you are permitted to share]
Constraints or policy: [format, time, rules and approvals]

Stage 3 — Produce and review
Return a summary by SKU and reason, rates with denominators, data limitations, sample anonymized examples only if safe, possible investigation paths and an owner-ready action list.

Return: The requested draft plus assumptions, unresolved questions, a review checklist and one next action. Do not hide uncertainty. Mark missing facts as questions or placeholders.
Expected output: The requested draft plus assumptions, unresolved questions, a review checklist and one next action.
Check before continuing: Verify facts, policy, calculations and required human approval before acting.

## Review before using
Do not infer customer motives beyond recorded reasons or expose customer text. A correlation does not prove a product defect. Escalate safety, injury or regulated-product concerns through approved channels.

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Use the result as a draft. Review it for accuracy, context and any required approvals.