Handling returns without a warehouse in 2026

If you sell without a warehouse, sooner or later you hit the same question: where do returns go? To your own home means opening parcels at the kitchen table and then sending them back to your stock. To a fulfilment centre means a contract you were trying to avoid.

With AirPost your stock already sits with a sender, close to your customers. The shortest route for a return is the same one: back to that sender. This article walks through how that works, what it costs and where the limits are. How outsourcing itself works is on local fulfilment in Europe.

How it works with AirPost #

1. 1

   1. Choose a sender who accepts returns

   Senders who accept returns have the "Returns" pill on their card and profile, with their price: "This sender accepts returns · € … per return". A sender switches this on with "Accept returns" and sets their "Price per return", up to €25.00.

2. 2

   2. Set your return address

   In your settings, under Returns, is the customer return address: where your customers send their returns. It applies to new orders. For a single order you can choose a custom return address. Agree in the conversation with your sender which address you enter.

3. 3

   3. The sender reports the return

   When a return arrives, the sender presses "Report a return" in your conversation. They take 5 photos in a fixed order, choose what state the item is in and add a note if needed. The conversation then shows: "Return reported · 5 photos · View".

4. 4

   4. You review the return

   Your orders page has a Returns tab. A new return shows as "New", with the photos, the condition and the note. Not sure? Press "Ask for more info"; the return moves to "Info requested" and the answer appears in the conversation.

5. 5

   5. You accept and choose what happens

   With Accept you choose what should happen to the item, with an optional note. Below the button you see the cost: the sender’s return price plus €0.85, from your balance. After Confirm the return shows "Accepted".

6. 6

   6. The sender carries it out

   The conversation shows "Return accepted" followed by your choice, so the sender knows what to do. Their return price is credited to their balance straight away.

The photos you get #

The sender can only report a return once all 5 required photos are in. They can add up to 5 extra. Together they tell you what arrived, without you having the parcel in your hands.

The sender also picks one of three conditions: Intact, Damaged or Not right. "Not right" is for a return that contains something other than expected. The note ("Anything you noticed?") is optional.

What you can do with a return #

What a return costs #

No money moves until you accept a return. A reported return that is still waiting for you costs nothing.

If your balance is too low, accepting fails and the app says: "Not enough balance. Top up first." The parcel simply stays with the sender until you have topped up.

A worked example: in one month 10 returns arrive at a sender on the default price, and you accept all of them. You pay 10 × (€2.00 + €0.85) = €28.50. No monthly fee, no storage charge per shelf: only what actually came in.

What the sender sees #

The sender always knows where they stand. When reporting, the dialog says: "The parcel stays with you until the shop accepts. Until then, there’s nothing to do." After sending, the conversation shows "waiting for the shop, the parcel stays with you". If you ask for more info, your question appears as a line in the conversation and they answer there.

That keeps everything about one return in one thread: the report, the photos, your question, their answer and your decision. It is also the record you fall back on when a customer asks what happened to their return.

Customer return or failed delivery #

Two kinds of parcels come back, and they take different routes.

• Customer return. Your customer sends an item back. It goes to your customer return address, and if that is with your sender, it follows the flow above.
• Failed delivery. The carrier could not deliver the parcel. The selected shipping service then determines the return route; your customer return address is not used for this. The default route depends on the sender who claims the order.

A parcel lost or damaged in transit is not a return but a claim with the carrier. How that works is in parcel lost or damaged: what to do as a shop.

What EU law asks of you #

If you sell online to consumers in the EU, they have a right of withdrawal: a 14-day cooling-off period from delivery, without giving a reason. If a customer returns an item within that period, they pay the postage and packaging, unless you offer to pay or did not inform them about those costs before they bought.

Those rules do not change because a sender holds your stock. You remain the seller; the sender receives the return and you decide. So state in your returns policy where returns go and who pays for sending them back.

When this does not fit #

• ✓You work with a sender who accepts returns and holds your stock
• ✓You want to decide per return based on photos, without seeing the parcel yourself
• ✕Your sender has "Accept returns" switched off: they cannot report a return
• ✕The partnership is no longer active: no returns can be reported
• ✕You want returns approved automatically: that deliberately does not exist

How much stock to place with a sender is covered in how much stock to send a sender for a first batch. Still looking for a sender? Look for the Returns pill on the cards at senders.