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Return Policies
Return Policies

Learn about return policies for Target vendors and where you can see them in Partners Online.

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Written by Clinton Rhodes
Updated over a week ago

What are return policies?

Return policies tell Target what to do with a product (and who pays for dealing with the product) when it is returned after a purchase by a Target guest and can no longer be resold.

Whenever you're creating items in Partners Online, return policies are one of the criteria that are needed to finish creating an item to make sure Target can track it and sell it.

There are two factors to consider:

  1. Financial disposition: who pays for a return?

    1. Target: listed as Markdown

    2. The Vendor: listed as Charge to Vendor

  2. Physical disposition: what do you do with a returned product that cannot be resold?

    1. Destroy: product is sent to a recycler to be broken down and disposed of properly

    2. Donate: product is donated to charity (only food and pet items, per Target)

    3. Return to Vendor - Pick up from Store

    4. Salvage: product sold on the secondary market to a 3rd Party (e.g. Goodwill) which allows the product to be reused

    5. Return to Vendor via CRC (shipped): product is returned to the Central Returns Center (CRC) to be consolidated, processed and returned to the vendor

Where can I find my return policies?

Return policies live in many places within Partners Online. We're going to highlight the two fastest and most explanatory places here.

  1. Vendor Management & Maintenance

  2. LaunchPad

Finding Return Policies in VMM

Step 1: Under Apps & Reports, click Vendor Management And Maintenance

Step 2: Click Target Vendor Numbers

Step 3: Click one of your vendor numbers. If your vendor numbers aren't red, meaning they're not a link, contact one of your POL administrators to see if they can give you Limited Update Access in VMM.

Step 4: Click Returns for department level policies

Step 5: Check out your department level policies. It is possible to have multiple policies per department. And most departments do have a standard or default policy that will be used if an exception is not negotiated for.

Policy names are contained within each department. So the first row is Dept 83, Policy AAA. Second row is Dept 94, Policy AAA, etc. We can see the second policy for Dept 83 is AAB. Policies can also be deleted, as we can see Dept 7 starts at AAB, there was likely an AAA that has been deleted.

Finding Return Policies in LaunchPad

Step 1: Under Apps & Reports, click LaunchPad

Step 2: Click Search

Step 3: Click a TCIN link for an item. You can only view one item and its item level policy at a time within Partners Online.

Step 4: On the left of the new page that loads, scroll down to the Return Policy section

How can I see if Target is following the policies?

Pay attention to your Return-Damage-Defective deductions (reason codes A004, A135, A139, A147, A242) to see if you're getting deductions for items that Target should have paid for rather than charging to the vendor via a deduction. Also pay attention to the physical disposition that is noted on the Credit/Debit Memo Reports (retrieved from POL's Accounts Payable: Domestic app).

If you see that the proper policies are not being used, it's worth creating a dispute in the Synergy Vendor Dispute app.

Of note, Target Vendor Income (TVI) contracts can overrule return policies if there are specific allowance and markdown types included in the contract for specific items.

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