Let's be honest, product returns are a headache. They're more than just an inconvenience; they're a slow, silent drain on your bottom line. You're not just losing the cost of the item. You're also paying for return shipping, restocking fees, and the time your support team spends sorting it all out.
But what if all that return data wasn't just a cost center? What if you could use it to figure out what's really going on with your products? That's the idea behind using AI. It can sift through all the customer feedback to find out not just what people are returning, but why, helping you fix problems at the source.
This guide is all about Salesforce AI Return Insights, Salesforce's own tool for this job. We'll get into what it is, how it works, and have an honest look at its weak spots. We’ll also explore a simpler, more flexible way to get the same kind of powerful insights without having to rework your entire setup.
What is Salesforce AI Return Insights?
Think of Salesforce AI Return Insights as a detective built right into your Salesforce setup, specifically for businesses running on Commerce Cloud and Order Management. Its main goal is to automatically analyze the reasons customers return products. It digs into their written feedback to uncover trends and pinpoint why your return rates might be high.
The tool uses Salesforce's Einstein AI to comb through unstructured text from places like return notes and product reviews. It takes all that qualitative feedback and turns it into organized, categorized insights. The idea is to give you the information you need to make smart changes, like clarifying a confusing product description, fixing a wonky sizing guide, or catching a manufacturing flaw before it snowballs.
It sounds pretty good, but there's a catch. This isn't a standalone app you can just add on. To get it to work, you need a specific combination of Salesforce licenses, including Data Cloud and the Order Management Growth License. From day one, it’s deeply embedded in their ecosystem.
How Salesforce AI Return Insights works
To really get what this tool offers, it helps to look at how it actually collects, analyzes, and presents information. The whole process has a few key stages, each with its own quirks.
Data collection from multiple streams
At its heart, Salesforce AI Return Insights pulls data from the comment field customers fill out when they make a return within Salesforce. This is its main source of information for understanding what went wrong.
While the official documentation says it can be set up to look at other data sources, like product reviews, this isn't a feature that works right out of the box. It requires setting up configuration of additional API hooks, which is a fancy way of saying you'll probably need a developer or a Salesforce pro to wire it all together. This can be a real roadblock if your most valuable feedback is scattered outside of Salesforce, which, let's face it, it often is.
AI-powered analysis and reason categorization
The process is pretty simple on the surface: a user picks a group of up to 20 products to analyze. Einstein AI then reads through all the related return comments to find common themes and sort them into categories. This is where the tool can be genuinely useful, helping your team go from vague return codes like "defective" to specific, helpful feedback like "the zipper breaks after one use."
However, there's a strange limitation you need to know about. According to Salesforce's own documentation, "Because Einstein is analyzing data, there’s no opportunity to regenerate the output." In simple terms, you get one shot at the analysis. You can't tweak your query, refine the focus, or run it again to see if you get better results without starting the whole process over. For teams that like to experiment and improve as they go, this rigidity can feel pretty frustrating.
Actionable insights for business improvement
The end game for Salesforce AI Return Insights is to give you clear information that helps you make better business decisions. When you know exactly why products are being sent back, you can take specific steps to prevent it from happening again.
For instance, you might find out that a popular shirt is constantly returned because the "sizing runs small." With that knowledge, you can update the product page with a friendly note advising customers to size up. These kinds of small, data-backed adjustments can lead to a noticeable drop in returns, which saves you money and helps build happier, more loyal customers.
The challenges of implementing Salesforce AI Return Insights
While the tool sounds promising, getting a deeply integrated piece of enterprise software like this off the ground comes with some real-world hurdles. It’s definitely not as simple as flipping a switch, so it’s best to know what you’re getting into.
Complex setup and technical prerequisites
Getting Salesforce AI Return Insights up and running is a technical, multi-step marathon. It involves activating Data Cloud, setting up users and permissions, creating data streams, mapping out data schemas, and installing a separate package. This isn't a simple, plug-and-play solution; it's a major project that requires someone with deep Salesforce knowledge and a good chunk of time.
This complexity is a world away from modern, self-serve platforms. A tool like eesel AI, for example, lets you connect your helpdesk and knowledge bases in a few clicks, without forcing you onto a sales call or into a months-long implementation project.
Data silos and vendor lock-in
Return Insights is built to work with data that’s already living comfortably inside Salesforce. But what about all the useful customer insights you have elsewhere? Important feedback is often scattered across internal wikis like Confluence, project plans in Notion, or casual team chats in Slack. Pulling that information into Salesforce for analysis isn't a standard feature and usually means custom integration work.
This is where tools that aren't tied to one platform really shine. eesel AI was designed to bring all your scattered knowledge together. It instantly connects to over 100 sources, including past support tickets, internal docs, and chat logs, to give its AI a complete view of what's going on.
An infographic showing how eesel AI connects to various knowledge sources to provide comprehensive insights, a key advantage over Salesforce AI Return Insights.Opaque costs and credit consumption
The cost of using Salesforce AI Return Insights isn't a simple subscription fee. It works on a consumption model that uses both Einstein credits and Data Cloud credits. This makes budgeting a nightmare, because your costs can swing wildly depending on how much data you're processing. A busy holiday season with a spike in returns could leave you with a surprisingly large bill, creating a lot of financial uncertainty.
A simpler, more integrated alternative to Salesforce AI Return Insights
For teams who want powerful AI insights without the enterprise-level complexity and cost, eesel AI offers a modern, flexible alternative. It’s built to deliver value right away by working with the tools you already have.
Unify all your customer knowledge, not just the return data
While Salesforce keeps its focus narrow, looking mainly at return forms, eesel AI's AI Agent sees the bigger picture. It analyzes all of your past customer conversations from helpdesks like Zendesk or Freshdesk, plus your internal documents and chat logs. This lets it spot patterns across the entire customer journey, identifying potential return reasons from pre-sale questions or support issues long before a customer even starts the return process.
Go live in minutes: A fast alternative
You can forget about setup projects that drag on for weeks. eesel AI is designed to be up and running in minutes, thanks to one-click helpdesk integrations. But the real standout feature is its simulation mode. Before you enable anything for your customers, you can run a simulation on thousands of your past support tickets. You’ll get an instant, accurate report on what percentage of issues the AI can resolve and see exactly how it would have responded, giving you total confidence before you go live.
A screenshot of the eesel AI simulation mode, which allows businesses to test the AI's performance on past data before full implementation, unlike the more rigid Salesforce AI Return Insights.Customize actions beyond the analysis
Salesforce gives you insights, but eesel AI connects those insights directly to action. It’s not just about knowing why a return happened; it's about doing something about it right away.
For example, if the AI detects a return is due to a shipping mistake, you can set it up to automatically tag the ticket with "Shipping Issue," notify the logistics team in a dedicated Slack channel, and draft a personalized apology email that includes a discount code for the customer's next purchase. This turns a negative experience into a chance to build loyalty, all without anyone lifting a finger.
This image displays the customization rules in eesel AI, showing how users can create automated workflows based on insights, a feature that goes beyond the analysis of Salesforce AI Return Insights.Salesforce AI Return Insights pricing vs. eesel AI
When you look at the cost, the two tools couldn't be more different. One is built for enterprise budgets with very little transparency, while the other is all about predictable, straightforward pricing.
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Salesforce Pricing: There is no standalone price tag for Salesforce AI Return Insights. To get access, you have to buy a bundle of expensive Salesforce products, including Order Management with the Growth License, Data Cloud, and Einstein. The pricing is complicated, hard to find, and based on a variable credit system that’s difficult to predict.
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eesel AI Pricing: eesel AI offers a refreshingly simple and predictable pricing model. With clear plan tiers based on interaction volume and a promise of "no per-resolution fees," you'll never be surprised by a bill after a busy month.
A screenshot of eesel AI's transparent pricing page, which stands in contrast to the complex, bundled pricing of Salesforce AI Return Insights.| Feature | Salesforce AI Return Insights | eesel AI |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | Complex bundle of licenses + variable credit usage | Flat monthly/annual fee based on interactions |
| Predictability | Low (costs scale with data volume) | High (fixed cost, no per-resolution fees) |
| Setup Cost | High (requires specialist setup, multiple products) | Low (self-serve, starts with a free trial) |
| Testing | Requires sales engagement and org setup | Free, powerful simulation on your own past data |
The right tool for the job: Choosing between eesel AI and Salesforce AI Return Insights
So, which tool is the right fit for you? Salesforce AI Return Insights is a powerful, native feature that can work well for large companies already heavily invested in the Salesforce world. If you have a dedicated team of Salesforce experts and a budget that can absorb fluctuating costs, it can deliver solid insights right inside your CRM.
For pretty much everyone else, eesel AI is the way to go. It’s built for modern, agile teams who need a fast, flexible, and affordable way to get AI-powered insights. It’s for businesses that care about speed, transparent pricing, and the freedom to work with their existing tools instead of being locked into one ecosystem.
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Frequently asked questions
Salesforce AI Return Insights is a Salesforce-native tool that utilizes Einstein AI to automatically analyze customer return data. Its main purpose is to uncover the specific reasons behind product returns by processing unstructured text feedback from return notes and product reviews, helping businesses identify trends and common issues.
It primarily collects data from the comment fields customers fill out when making a return within Salesforce. Einstein AI then reads through this textual feedback from a selected group of products to find common themes and categorize return reasons. Integrating feedback from sources outside of Salesforce typically requires additional custom development.
To implement Salesforce AI Return Insights, businesses need a specific combination of Salesforce licenses, including Data Cloud and the Order Management Growth License. The setup process is complex, involving Data Cloud activation, user permissions, data stream creation, schema mapping, and a separate package installation, often requiring deep Salesforce expertise.
Key challenges include a complex and lengthy setup process, the risk of vendor lock-in due to its deep integration with the Salesforce ecosystem, and limited flexibility in re-running or refining analysis outputs. Additionally, its consumption-based pricing model, utilizing Einstein and Data Cloud credits, can lead to unpredictable costs.
Businesses can leverage these insights to make data-backed adjustments, such as updating confusing product descriptions, correcting sizing guides, or addressing manufacturing flaws at the source. Understanding the precise reasons for returns allows for targeted improvements that reduce return rates, save costs, and enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.
There is no standalone price for Salesforce AI Return Insights. To gain access, businesses must purchase a bundle of expensive Salesforce products, including the Order Management Growth License, Data Cloud, and Einstein. The pricing is complex, often opaque, and based on a variable credit consumption model that can make budgeting and cost prediction challenging.
