Shipping & Returns

The Shipping & Returns Process: Essential for your success on the marketplace

A smooth shipping and returns process is very important to our customers and therefore essential for your success on the marketplace.

As an OTTO Market partner, you have the option of using different warehouse locations and different shipping providers within Germany and the EU.

How to ship and return

You have a variety of shipping providers to choose from for your parcel goods: Hermes, DHL, DHL Express, GLS, DPD, and UPS.

You can only process your returns to a warehouse in Germany with Hermes, DHL, and GLS. For returns to selected EU countries, you can only use DHL as a shipping provider. The selected countries include: Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Spain and the Czech Republic. Returns to any other EU country are not possible.

If you do not have a returns warehouse location in the beforementioned EU countries, there is the option of DHL consolidation via Göttingen.

There are no specifications for freight forwarding goods. You can use a freight forwarder of your choice for the processing of freight forwarded goods.

Important for smooth processing: For each order, we need a tracking number for both the outbound and return journey. This enables the tracking of the shipment and is also required to create the return label.

In order to be able as a customer to send a return, they register it in their customer account. OTTO then generates the return label and the QR code from the data you provide. To make this possible, we need the return tracking number already when submitting your shipping confirmation.

Order processing in three steps

Step 1

Customers order partner articles on otto.de and we forward the order to you.

Step 2

You confirm the order, send us a shipment number for round trip and ship the products directly to the customers.

Step 3

In the event of a return, you notify us of the successful receipt of the return and we notify the customer.

Possible shipping providers for parcel goods

As an OTTO Market partner, you have the option of using various shipping providers within Germany an the EU. The following overview shows you which shipping providers are permitted for the outward or return journey in which countries. Shipment tracking must always be guaranteed.

Shipping providers for the outward journey for parcel goods in Germany and the EU:

Shipping providers for the return of parcel goods in Germany:

Shipping providers for the return of parcel goods in selected* EU countries:

*The selected EU countries include: Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Spain, and the Czech Republic

Freight forwarding goods - full flexibility

If you offer freight forwarding goods, you can use a shipping provider of your choice and do not have to provide a returns consignment number. To arrange a return of freight forwarded goods, customers will see on otto.de under "My account" the contact details you have entered in the returns information.

"Warenpost" - the solution for small-volume products

Small-volume products cannot be sent in a letter, but you can use merchandise mail (Warenpost). It is possible to transmit the tracking number of the merchandise mail by means of the shipping type parcel.

The returns process for parcel goods

Customers can return the delivered orders or declare the revocation until the expiry of the return period of 30 days. To do this, they must register the shipment of the return via the customer account.

With the help of the return shipment number, which you have sent to OTTO as part of the shipping confirmation, OTTO generates a return label and QR-code for the customer and makes it available as a PDF file in the customer account. The return address from your settings will be used for this purpose.

Customers can print out the return label themselves, stick it on the package and send the return.

The return shipment number for parcel goods

As soon as an order is ready for dispatch and has left your warehouse, you report a dispatch confirmation to OTTO. The shipping confirmation must contain the place of departure, the shipping service provider as well as the outbound shipment number and the returns shipment number. The return shipment number is used to create the return label and track the return. Each package also needs a shipment number for the return in order to be able to track whether it has also arrived back at the seller. You only incur costs if a return actually takes place.

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