Best questions for marketplace sellers survey about return experience

Here are some of the best questions for a marketplace sellers survey about return experience, and tips to craft them effectively. If you want to build a survey like this in seconds, Specific can help you generate one, ready to use.

Best open-ended questions for marketplace sellers about return experience

Open-ended questions unlock real stories, giving us context well beyond “yes” or “no.” They're especially helpful when we need to surface pain points, unexpected obstacles, or unique perspectives—things that standard multiple-choice surveys often miss. When mapping out seller return experiences, open-ended questions let people explain problems in their own words. That’s where genuine insights emerge. Here are ten of the strongest open-ended questions we’ve found for marketplace seller surveys on returns:

1. How would you describe your overall experience with customer returns in the past year?

2. Can you share the biggest challenge you’ve faced when handling product returns?

3. What return-related policy or process causes you the most frustration?

4. Describe a recent return situation that went especially well—or one that went poorly. What happened?

5. How do you currently communicate your return policy to buyers?

6. What tools or support would make handling returns easier for you?

7. What’s one thing you wish buyers better understood about the return process?

8. How do frequent returns impact your business—financially or operationally?

9. In your opinion, what’s missing from the current return experience provided by the marketplace?

10. If you could change one aspect of the marketplace’s return process, what would it be and why?

Why does this matter? Because return experiences are a critical pressure point—almost 80.2% of returns stem from product damage during shipping, affecting both buyers and sellers [3]. The policies and processes we set up here truly shape results and reputation.

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for marketplace sellers survey about return experience

Single-select multiple-choice questions work best when you want to quantify issues or quickly segment respondents. They also help open the door to conversation—a simple pick can spark a targeted follow-up, especially if it’s easier for the person to choose than to type a full response.

Question: Which aspect of the return process do you find most challenging?

• Processing refunds

• Shipping logistics

• Communicating with customers

• Updating inventory

• Other

Question: How clear do you find the marketplace's return policies?

• Very clear

• Somewhat clear

• Neutral

• Somewhat unclear

• Very unclear

Question: On average, how many return requests do you receive each month?

• 0-5

• 6-15

• 16-30

• More than 30

When to followup with “why?” Whenever someone selects a response that could have a story behind it, a follow-up “why?” can dig deeper. For example, if a seller believes the return policies are “very unclear,” a follow-up like, “Why do you find the policies unclear?” helps us understand specifics—often, these lead to concrete fixes.

When and why to add the “Other” choice? If you want to be sure you’re not boxing people into assumptions, “Other” gives space for situations you didn’t anticipate. This isn’t just about inclusivity—a follow-up like “Please elaborate on your choice” can surface patterns and trouble spots we’d otherwise miss.

NPS question: Should you use it with marketplace sellers for return experience?

NPS (Net Promoter Score) asks sellers, “How likely are you to recommend selling on our marketplace to a friend or colleague?” on a 0-10 scale, usually followed by “why?” It matters in the context of returns because negative return experiences often drag overall marketplace loyalty down. When seller return rates average 16.9% and could rise to 24.5% by 2025 [1], this impacts retention and advocacy directly. If your sellers are facing friction with returns, their NPS will reveal it, and the “why?” tells us what to fix. Try adding an NPS survey preset for marketplace seller return experience with our builder.

The power of follow-up questions

We believe follow-up questions are where conversation starts to feel truly human. Instead of stopping with a single answer, smart follow-ups dig deeper—clarifying, challenging, or exploring areas the respondent brings up. If you’re curious about how automation handles this, check out our feature on automatic AI follow-up questions.

Specific’s survey engine listens and asks, in real time, “What do you mean by that?” or “Can you give an example?”—like a great interviewer. This not only uncovers deeper context but also means you no longer have to chase respondents with emails or schedule extra calls (a real time-saver when the average survey response rate is just 33% [4]). The conversation feels natural, thanks to real, dynamically-generated probing.

• Marketplace Seller: “Returns are a headache.”

• AI follow-up: “Could you share more about what makes the returns process particularly challenging for you?”

How many followups to ask? In most cases, two or three layered follow-ups are enough to get real clarity. The key? Don’t overdo it—and let people skip followups once you have what you need. Specific lets you configure follow-ups for this reason.

This makes it a conversational survey: Instead of static forms, the survey turns into a back-and-forth—true dialogue, not just data collection.

AI analysis, response summaries, survey response themes: Don’t worry about being buried in text. With AI survey response analysis, you can have Specific summarize, extract key topics, and answer questions about the results—no manual coding or sifting required.

Automated, AI-powered follow-up is a new concept. My honest recommendation: generate a survey now and see how it works in action—there’s nothing like experiencing it yourself.

How to prompt ChatGPT or other AIs for survey questions

If you want AI to help you draft great survey questions, context is everything. Start simple:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for marketplace sellers survey about return experience.

But for more focused, high-quality results, add context about who you are, your goal, and your pain points. For example:

I'm building a survey for experienced sellers on our marketplace to learn about their main frustrations with product returns. The goal is to improve their return experience and reduce friction. What 10 open-ended questions would you suggest?

To organize your ideas further, try prompting:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

From there, identify the categories that matter most and drill deeper:

Generate 10 questions for categories “Policy clarity”, “Shipping challenges”, and “Customer communication”.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey is exactly what it sounds like—a back-and-forth interview, powered by AI, designed to feel like a human-to-human chat. Unlike static forms, it flexes, probes, and adapts mid-survey based on what people actually say. This approach eliminates guesswork in seller research, producing higher response rates, richer stories, and actionable data.

Why use AI for marketplace seller surveys? Simply put: You get professional-quality surveys, expert-level follow-ups, and instant analysis in a fraction of the time. With tools like the AI survey generator, what used to take hours now takes minutes—no expertise required.

And when you pair this with Specific’s best-in-class conversational survey experience, everything about feedback feels smoother: for you and the sellers who respond. If you want to dive into practical steps, this tutorial on how to create a survey lays it all out clearly.

See this return experience survey example now

See the difference a targeted, conversational survey makes—get actionable seller feedback, save time, and enjoy instant AI insights. Start transforming your return experience process today.