Returns

Retailers Need to Prepare for a “Hazardous” Holiday Returns Season

If you thought states were all-consumed contending with the coronavirus, think again. Even in the midst of the pandemic, environmental regulators and local governments are aggressively penalizing retailers for how they handle returns that are deemed hazardous under environmental regulations that govern the waste stream.  And the ongoing civil enforcement is costing merchants millions of dollars in settlements and fines. Millions.

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Holiday Returns 2020: Online Shopping, Returns Higher than Ever

Holiday shopping is always a big time for returns, but shifts in shopping habits during the COVID-19 pandemic are raising questions about what holiday returns will look like this year. Shoppers gave us some surprises on their holiday shopping and returns expectations in a recent Inmar Intelligence survey, showing significantly more people planning online gift shopping because of the pandemic.

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Four Considerations When Choosing a Reverse Logistics Provider

Managing your own product returns and reverse supply chain can be costly and labor intensive. This effort draws focus and resources away from the forward supply chain and the all-important function of getting products to your customers.

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Solving Returns Abuse Can Be Profitable And Cost-Effective

Returns abuse is sometimes a complex riddle, but it’s far from a lost cause. More often than not, there are good, common-sense answers. Inmar has been solving return management riddles for 40 years -- we’ve seen everything and we’ve built software and processing on that experience that consistently, cost-effectively brings answers to just about any situation.

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The Rising Star of the 2020 Recession: The Secondary Market

The secondary market actually grows during a recession; it’s going to grow in 2020 as the rest of the economy suffers.

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Returns are Growing and Driving Opportunities for Resellers

Returns activity in the fourth quarter of 2019 broke with past trends as overall returns volume was up significantly compared to this quarter in previous years. Past analysis has found a close parallel between retail sales growth and returns growth. However, this last year-end saw returns volume grow 7% versus a roughly 4% increase in primary channel sales.  

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Sending Returned Products to Landfills Echoes Mom’s Wrath

Remember when Mom used to chide you for throwing away things that she thought were still useful? You can hear her voice echoing in your head right now, “Don’t you DARE throw that away -- someone might want it -- it’s still perfectly useful! That’s like throwing away money! What are you thinking???”

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The Cure for the “Holiday Hangover” from Growing Gift Returns

Yes, e-commerce is generating tremendous returns volume and, yes, manufacturers must act swiftly and efficiently in order to minimize value loss for returned products. However, highly capable providers with the experience, technology and facilities available to cost effectively relieve online sellers of this burden, execute timely and efficient disposition of returned goods and ensure maximum value retention for product that does come back.

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Embrace the Negative — Capitalize On Online Returns

Although the logistics burden of higher rates of e-commerce returns is not the happiest picture, the truth is that returns are neither a necessary evil nor indication of customer dissatisfaction.

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