Design and Architecture of the Return Shipping Fee Insurance Service in Youzan E‑commerce Platform

Background: Youzan micro‑mall provides e‑commerce solutions; supporting return shipping fee reduction is a standard feature. The “Return Shipping Fee” product offers insurance‑like coverage for return logistics costs.

The article analyzes the product’s value, process, risk control, and presents the architecture of the insurance business system.

1. Product Value

From the consumer perspective, displaying the shipping fee reduction promise reduces actual cost when returning goods.

From the merchant perspective, it lowers purchase friction, improves conversion, and reduces after‑sale labor.

2. Process Analysis

After merchants enable the service, the flow includes:

Pre‑payment: display service details on product and order pages.

Post‑payment: show service status on order detail page.

After shipment: merchants pay a fee, the system purchases insurance, generating a policy and activating the service.

During return, if the consumer chooses door‑to‑door pickup, the fee is directly deducted; if self‑return, the consumer pays upfront and the insurer reimburses after refund.

3. Risk Control

The product integrates Youzan’s risk‑control system at critical nodes, adjusting service rates, performing pre‑service audits, and claim‑approval checks to prevent fraud, fake orders, and abusive refunds.

4. Insurance Business Analysis

The “Return Shipping Fee” is an insurance product: low premium, compensation for the low‑probability event of a return. It follows the definitions in the PRC Insurance Law, covering contract parties, insured objects, liabilities, periods, amounts, premiums, claim procedures, and dispute handling.

5. Architecture Design

5.1 Business Architecture

Key activities include service lifecycle management (open/close, risk control, freeze/unfreeze), and service order management (creation, activation, deduction simulation, claim application, claim modification).

5.2 Technical Architecture

The system is divided into four layers:

Business Service Layer – interfaces with Youzan SaaS ecosystem, perceives the whole transaction flow, updates rates.

Domain Service Layer – provides standard underwriting and claim services, configures product‑specific charge rules and insurer channels.

Component Layer – reusable capabilities such as insurer underwriting, claim filing, risk verification, payment and refund.

Dependency Layer – underlying middle‑platform services (shop, member, transaction, payment, risk control).

Domain‑driven design (DDD) is applied. Core domain models include policy, claim, product catalog, insured object management, channel management, billing, and routing.

Common sub‑domains: billing management (multi‑dimensional rate configuration), product‑channel routing (selecting insurer based on weight, stability, rate, etc.).

Supporting components handle business rules, financial flows, channel interactions, and risk audits.

Overall application architecture is illustrated in the accompanying diagrams.

6. Conclusion

Beyond the return‑shipping‑fee product, Youzan can extend insurance to scenarios such as on‑time delivery guarantees, beauty‑product allergy compensation, and fresh‑goods damage coverage, driving the insurance system toward higher reusability and extensibility.